who tried breeding silkies ?

[wyz]

I just made my 1st order with silkworms.ca

Bought some eggs, food and adult silkies.

Who here breeds these worms with success, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

Is it hard ?
Is it worth the time spent ?
etc. etc. etc.

I've been breeding crickets for more than 18 months now and today I can say it's an easy thing to do, but I did make alot of mistakes in the beginning.

Can you guys give me hints on what not to do and tricks to raise my worms better.

thanks all.

WYZ

[ChristinaM]

Hi WYZ.....I've done the breeding silkies before....it is a long drawn out process...the worm turning into a cocoon, cocoon hatching, moths mating, eggs laid, time for them to hatch, etc.
But if you are not bothered by the time frame, then go for it.

After tons of reading, I finally figured out why my eggs weren't hatching, and the ones that did died shortly after. I was not refridgerating the eggs at all. Most things I've read, you need to cool the eggs, then bring em out to room temp to hatch.

The worms not living were because I was not caring for them as well as I should.....mainly because I'd only have 3-5 hatch, then I'd forget about em, etc.

So, is it hard: only the waiting and caring for the wee babies. Waiting being harder LOL. Once you know how to care for the babies, it's not hard.

Is it worth the time: depends on you. For me, I am short on money, I have 11 silkie eating lizards, plus my frog, and I like giving them to my fish on occassion.....silkies are expensive, and my lizards are good sized dragons and gecko's, which eat alot of em ( the dragons ). So for me, yes it is worth the time.

Since you've orderred eggs, you will get the idea really easy about raising the babies. Once you are able to raise them, you are all set.

tips for raising silkies from eggs:

- be sterile. Wash your hands before handling the silkie food or worms. Some people don't touch either with their hands. I do, and have had no problems. But with baby silkies, definately wash.

- keep somewhere warmish. I keep mine on my bearded dragon enclosure, but not too close to the heat lamp.

- keep food fresh and clean. I buy the powdered, make up a batch, leaving enough in my fridge for about a week, I freeze the rest in batches, vaccum sealed or mouth sealed. Then bring out a frozen piece the night before I need it, letting it thaw in the fridge till it is completely thawed.

will write more later gtg.

[wyz]

It's a great great start ! That's the kind of info I'm looking for :)

thanks for taking the time to explain..

WYZ

[ChristinaM]

Not a prob at all :) Sometimes I have to cut it short due to interruptions, and if I leave it without posting, my luck is my comp freezes and I have to start again LOL.

k, back on the silkie babies.

- usually they will all hatch within a day or two. Once you notice alot hatching, throw in a little bit of food ( I cut a smallish cube and squish it with my fingers so it's flat, and put that in, as well as crumbling food all around. Then I leave em for a couple days, with lid on.

- now, here's where people will highly disagree with my way.
What I do is : Have a clean container ready, with some food sprinkled along the bottom.
I then manually take the worms from their "hatching" container and plop em on the food ( I use my fingers, or tweezers to move the worms....I do it very gentle )

if you have alot of worms, then use a couple containers. Right now I have 2 containers of 125ish worms in each ( wee babies )

leave em for a couple days, add more food. I sprinkle the food on top of the babies.

- after this point, I start cleaning regularly. ( meaning every couple days ) by doing the same thing above, new container, put worms on food.

any questions on this part so far?

[wyz]

nope :)

I read this method on one of the care sheet I read.

Where the info was a bit "blurry" was at the adult part.

They didn't say what to do to help de worms make a cocoon. Someone told me once to puv ring of paper in a container and the worms would spin in those.. But I didn't read anything in that sense.. neither for the mating and laying part.

WYZ

[ChristinaM]

I've never deliberately tried to "make" my worms cocoon. They just do it on their own....I keep em warm, wellfed, and they eventually cocoon. So I guess I'm not much of a help on that question am I LOL.

[wyz]

Seems pretty easy :)

Thanks for your help, I'm sure your help will save me much time and errors.

WYZ

[Buster]

sorry, don't have time to post much but check this site for setting a place up for them to spin cocoons.

http://www.pclaunch.com/~kayton/silk.htm

[meow_mix450]

yup, lol i also had to find out the hard way, all my praying mantis eggs died:(, cause i never kenw that they needed a cooling period. ugh, good luck, hope it turns out

Meow

[Smithy]

My silkworms are currently laying eggs.
One source i found says that the yellow eggs are no good, is this true? 75% of the eggs are yellow and I would have no idea why they would be infertile.

[sevenofthorns]

They lay them yellow/white, but the fertile eggs will then turn blackish blue over time. I'm unsure the length of time required before you can say for sure if they're fertile or not though...I think they should turn colours within 3 or 4 days though. Someone else may know exact.

[Memnoch]

What is the consensus of the cooling? Is it required for all species? I have about 15 cocoons at the moment and the moths should be emerging soon....

To cool or not to cool... is the question... :-)