THE SECRETS OF SILKWORM CULTURE

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Then, should your packet of "silkworm seeds" show up before the local mulberry trees are in leaf, keep the embryos at about 50°F (just place the paper towel or napkin—on which the eggs arrive—in a sealed jar, and store the container in the crisper compartment of your 'fridge) until it's time to hatch them.

WORM INCUBATION

Once your trees have produced a good supply of feed, it's time to "plant" your silk crop. Simply place the eggs-still on their paper-in any available container (such as a shoebox or dishpan) and put 'em in a warm, dry, well ventilated spot. It's very important to keep all the eggs, worms, cocoons, and moths out of drafts and direct sunlight ... but they do need plenty of fresh air, so it's best not to smoke around silkworms at any stage of their development. The temperature of the incubating box should be increased gradually over a couple of days, and then 'maintained as nearly constant as possi ble ... anywhere from 68 to 77°F will do.

After three to ten days in the box (de pending on warmth, humidity, and other factors) the majority of your eggs will hatch within one ten-minute period ... usually during the early morning. This means that you can wake up to find that you have 200 very hungry mouths to feed! Any worms that don't hatch out with the first group probably won't put in their appearance until the following day. These late eggs should be placed in another box, since they'll be on a different molting and spinning schedule from the first-born

Keep in mind that your infant silkworms will be less than 1/8 of an inch long. Yet, one short month later the critters will have attained 10,000 times their initial weight ... and all that growth has to be fueled with mulberry leaves.

CARE AND FEEDING

For your worms' early feedings, remove the leaf stems and use only the tenderest top-of-the-tree leaves (remember to strip the branches from the base to the tip ... in order not to tear the bark or injure new buds). Such "starter feed" should be chopped into 1/4-inch squares and-if there's even a chance that the bush has been sprayed-washed and thoroughly dried before the fodder is sprinkled evenly about the box. It's best to pick the leaves fresh each day, but an emergency supply can be stored in the crisper of your refrigerator ... if, again, the greens are dried out before they're offered to the hungry little critters.

The more your new charges eat, the bigger they'll get and the more food they'll require. If you underfeed the worms at any point, they may become so ravenous that they'll overeat at the next meal and make themselves sick ... while constant underfeeding can even lower the quality of their silk! The trick is to give your worms adequate, regular feedings, never let them run out of food, and always remove old, wilted leaf pieces from the box.

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