When to hatch silkworms

New mulberry leaves

When’s the best time to
start
silkworm eggs?  Probably about
two weeks ago, although I only pulled mine out of the fridge on May 8.



Silkworm eggs

The trick is to time
your hatch for a period when there are plenty of young mulberry leaves
around, and for the sake of safety, you probably should also work
around the
frost-free
date
.  It would
be a shame to get baby silkworms going, only to have a frost nip back
the leaves so you end up without a food source.



Mulberry twig

What I forgot to factor
into my calculations is that it takes about two weeks for silkworm eggs
to hatch after you take them out of cold storage and put them in a dish
at room temperature.  So we’ll be getting a slightly late start
this year, but it shouldn’t be a big deal.  I’ll report more once
we have little white caterpillars crawling around.



Our chicken waterer keeps hens healthy with
POOP-free water while they wait for their caterpillar treats.

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