It's officially Day 10, and yet there's still no sign of any silkworm hatching. I'm starting to wonder if these were defective eggs or if there is another problem like refrigerator burn (if that even exists... I know that happens for a lot of embryos kept in freezers, but I'm not sure if that would apply for eggs that were kept in the normal part of the refrigerator over the course of several winter months) that is preventing the eggs from hatching properly.
I'm not liking the signs, anyhow. Some of the eggs have turned a pearly yellow or off-white, signifying that they were either infertile or had not come to term, which is fine. However, the rest of the eggs have turned a mostly grayish or semi-brown color as opposed to their formerly dark coloration. Most of the eggs are now deflated in the centers. I'm assuming that this is proper for silkworm egg development, but it's been a while since I've kept silkworms (the last time was probably two-four years ago), so I can't recall if this is the normal course of action. I've never bought silkworm eggs from a dealer before; we usually either bred our own silkworm eggs, ensuring a trustworthy population from already established cultures and generations, or got some live silkworms that were either in their second to third instar from a friend, so this is new to us.
If the silkworms don't start coming out this week, I will assume that they won't come out at all and are defective eggs. If that's the case, then this will be both the first and last time I'll buy eggs from Coastal Silkworms, and I'll have to contact them to complain and possibly ask for some sort of refund. How utterly disappointing.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Official Day 1: Taking out the silkworm eggs
Hi, again! Spring has finally arrived in my area. It's awfully late this year; it's already April 19th.
The mulberry leaves have finally started sprouting, and the first cherry blossoms have already dropped, giving way to new spring leaves. I may take some pictures of the mulberry trees to give an idea of what the leafy situation is right now.
The mulberry leaves have been growing for the past week or so, so we decided that now is the best time for taking out the silkworm eggs. We've kept them refrigerated well since the last post, so it's been a little over a month. If everything goes well, the silkworm eggs should hatch in 2-10 days.
Here are pictures of the petri dish containing the eggs:
The dish even comes equipped with a little instructional blurb:
We're planning on leaving the silkworm eggs in the petri dish until they hatch out; then we'll start transferring them to a larger shoe box or plastic container. The petri dish is not tightly sealed, so if any silkworms hatch out these next few days, they shouldn't suffocate to death. I anticipate that today is the start of a very hectic month of daily feeding, cleaning, and caring of the silkworm larvae. It'll be 4-6 weeks before they'll undergo metamorphosis to become breeding, adult moths.
It's rather sad, but adult moths live short lives full of nothing but four main goals: find a mate, have sex, lay eggs, and die. They unfortunately don't have functioning mouths, so they most likely die of starvation shortly after breeding. They're quite cute, though, and are furry little innocuous buggers. On the downside, the sexual discharge or fluid reeks and often stains the surrounding material a distasteful shade of yellowish brown (sort of like iodine, only smellier).
Hopefully we can stick to the regime of daily silkworm cleaning and feeding. If so, then we can expect many silkworms to become moths by next month and eventually pair off. Of course, we only need a few pairs; if we have a lot of cocoons, we may set aside just a few silk cocoons for breeding and allow those to hatch while boiling the rest for silk reeling. Remember, there are 500 eggs in that petri dish, give or take, and since an average female silk moth can lay around 200-500 eggs, just imagine how many eggs we'll have if we allowed all of them to breed! That would be insanity!
We'll be monitoring the eggs closely for the next few days; if I remember, I'll post an update on the first egg hatching.
The mulberry leaves have finally started sprouting, and the first cherry blossoms have already dropped, giving way to new spring leaves. I may take some pictures of the mulberry trees to give an idea of what the leafy situation is right now.
The mulberry leaves have been growing for the past week or so, so we decided that now is the best time for taking out the silkworm eggs. We've kept them refrigerated well since the last post, so it's been a little over a month. If everything goes well, the silkworm eggs should hatch in 2-10 days.
Here are pictures of the petri dish containing the eggs:
The dish even comes equipped with a little instructional blurb:
We're planning on leaving the silkworm eggs in the petri dish until they hatch out; then we'll start transferring them to a larger shoe box or plastic container. The petri dish is not tightly sealed, so if any silkworms hatch out these next few days, they shouldn't suffocate to death. I anticipate that today is the start of a very hectic month of daily feeding, cleaning, and caring of the silkworm larvae. It'll be 4-6 weeks before they'll undergo metamorphosis to become breeding, adult moths.
It's rather sad, but adult moths live short lives full of nothing but four main goals: find a mate, have sex, lay eggs, and die. They unfortunately don't have functioning mouths, so they most likely die of starvation shortly after breeding. They're quite cute, though, and are furry little innocuous buggers. On the downside, the sexual discharge or fluid reeks and often stains the surrounding material a distasteful shade of yellowish brown (sort of like iodine, only smellier).
Hopefully we can stick to the regime of daily silkworm cleaning and feeding. If so, then we can expect many silkworms to become moths by next month and eventually pair off. Of course, we only need a few pairs; if we have a lot of cocoons, we may set aside just a few silk cocoons for breeding and allow those to hatch while boiling the rest for silk reeling. Remember, there are 500 eggs in that petri dish, give or take, and since an average female silk moth can lay around 200-500 eggs, just imagine how many eggs we'll have if we allowed all of them to breed! That would be insanity!
We'll be monitoring the eggs closely for the next few days; if I remember, I'll post an update on the first egg hatching.
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