Coming to an End.

Woke up yesterday morning, no silkworms or moths to attend to.
Felt a bit lost.
Today I spoke to my Second Son and he tells me that he has someone interested in taking the eggs to hatch next spring.
I am yet to find someone to take the 699 cocoons.
Before I find somewhere to send them off to I might experiment a little with some, see if i can unravel a bit of the silk.

Day Fifty Six

Inside the cocoons the caterpillars quietly morph and will eventually transform into moths with four creamy coloured wings, six legs and two antennae

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

OCTOBER, 1873.

Day Fifty Three

Silkworm condominium has increased from four to five levels.

The sun shone today, the temperature rose to the mid twenties and not much else happened.

The little creatures are metamorphosing quietly in their cosy cocoons.

My influenza is still bothersome but improving.  When I start feeling more energetic I have to start cleaning up the tanks in preparation for the moths' emergence.

Hundreds of moths.....

Day Forty Two

Today has been a day of capturing escapees.

And watching other silkworms spin gossamer webs to build their cocoon.

Day Thirty Six, Week 6

One sure sign, in my opinion, that a silkworm is about to commence spinning its cocoon, is when it starts to climb the walls - literally.

Like the one above did late last night.

I removed the larva from the its tank and placed it in a shoe box with some cut down egg cartons.

It eventually found itself a nice little niche. 

I've turned the carton over so the silkworm could be photographed.

I want to keep the cocoons separated from the larvae as much as practical.

It wasn't long before the adult silkworm had settled in and started cementing itself into a space under the egg carton.

Here is the resulting cocoon not twenty four hours from when the top photograph was taken.

It's still the only cocoon so far.

On the right you can see a white-ish stain on the cardboard.  This is a fluid emitted by the larvae just before it begins to spin.  

Another sign that the silkworm is about to start spinning its silk cocoon is that it stops eating.

Because of the awkward position of the cocoon I couldn't take a close up of the beginning of the spin.

With the light behind the cocoon, the adult silkworm could still be seen spinning from side to side even when this last photograph was taken about thirty minutes ago.