CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Mulberry and silkworm breeding method

1. Mulberry and silkworm breeding method

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2. What are the methods of raising silkworms?

After receiving the silkworm eggs, place them in the prepared silkworm rearing box. The silkworm box can usually be made of ordinary paper boxes, but it must be clean and odorless. From the date of shipment, the silkworm eggs will naturally hatch into silkworms in about 11 days (including shipping time) at room temperature of 21-29 degrees Celsius.

Silkworms will have an appetite about 40 minutes after hatching, and the feeding process should begin at this time. Take the prepared fresh tender mulberry leaves out of the refrigerator, wait for the mulberry leaves to return to room temperature, cut them into small pieces with a knife and put them into the silkworm box. The silkworms will automatically climb onto the mulberry leaves to eat. It usually takes about 27 days for silkworms to hatch and cocoon on the mountain (divided into 5 ages). It is better to use tender mulberry leaves to feed silkworms from the first to third ages, and ordinary mulberry leaves can be used for silkworms from the fourth and fifth ages.

Silkworms are suitable for growing in an environment with a temperature range of 22-29 degrees Celsius, and their most suitable growth temperature is around 27 degrees Celsius. A silkworm eats about 25 grams of mulberry leaves in its lifetime. If you feed 40 silkworms, you only need 1 kilogram of mulberry leaves. But in the actual feeding process, some mulberry leaves will be wasted, so more mulberry leaves will be needed.

After the fifth instar, silkworms stop eating mulberry leaves and start looking for a suitable place to spin silk and make cocoons (also called going up the mountain to make cocoons). In rural areas, straw hills or pine branches are generally used as silkworm hills. For silkworms raised as pets, a paper box divided into many small compartments can be used instead.

Precautions for raising silkworms

1. Mulberry leaf preservation

1. Place the mulberry leaves in the refrigerator (around 5 degrees Celsius) to prevent them from spoiling.

2. Tie the mouth of the plastic bag tightly to slow down the drying and dehydration of the mulberry leaves.

2. Feeding of Silkworms

1. After taking out the mulberry leaves from the refrigerator, you need to wait for a few minutes to allow the mulberry leaves to return to room temperature before feeding them.

2. Do not wash the mulberry leaves with water, keep them in their natural state.

3. When feeding second-instar silkworms, please use tenderer mulberry leaves, 1-2 leaves per day.

4. Feeding time can be chosen in the morning or at noon.

3. Other matters needing attention

1. Do not catch silkworms with your hands, use the soft bristles of a brush to drive them away;

2. Clean the silkworm room every day;

3. The silkworm house should be placed in a cool place (around 25 degrees Celsius).

3. Tell me in detail the whole process of silkworm breeding

Before feeding, the mulberry leaves should be properly arranged and cut to facilitate feeding. The selection of bad leaves, stacking of leaves, cutting of mulberry with full leaves and buds, and weighing of mulberry are all within the scope of feeding. Some silkworm rooms have a room specifically for feeding mulberry, called the mulberry room, and the table used for selecting leaves and cutting mulberry is called the mulberry board. From the third instar, the mulberry leaves are cut into square blocks for feeding silkworms evenly and easily because the silkworms are small. The size of the block is adapted to the development of the silkworm body, and its side length is about 1.5 to 2 times the length of the silkworm body. In the middle and late third instar, it is changed to rough cutting. For the fourth instar, use leaves. For the fifth instar, use leaves and new shoots or strips. Feeding mulberry includes the number of times and the amount of feeding. Feeding mulberry means feeding mulberry leaves to silkworms, that is, spreading the adjusted mulberry leaves evenly on the silkworm seat to feed the silkworms, which is called feeding mulberry. This is the basic operation of silkworm breeding. The number of times mulberry is fed refers to how many times mulberry is fed in a day. Three times a day is called three-time breeding, and four times a day is called four-time breeding. At present, three-time breeding or four-time breeding is generally implemented in production. The amount of mulberry is generally determined by the amount of food, the feeding rate and the practical experience of sericulture, and is also related to the silkworm bed area. Under the premise of a relatively standard silkworm bed area, the amount of mulberry fed to feed 25,000 silkworms in a box of silkworm seeds is about 1.5kg for the first age, 4.75kg for the second age, 17.25kg for the third age, 87.5kg for the fourth age, 587.5kg for the fifth age, and 698.5kg for all ages. The actual amount of mulberry used for feeding a box of seeds is between 600 and 700kg. The amount of mulberry used varies greatly depending on the silkworm variety and the silkworm breeding season. In spring, the amount of mulberry used for spring silkworms is about 700kg; in summer and autumn, the amount of mulberry used for summer silkworms is about 550kg; the amount of mulberry used for early autumn silkworms is about 500kg; the amount of mulberry used for mid-to-late autumn silkworms is about 540kg. The amount of mulberry used depends on the silkworm variety, silkworm period, silkworm bed area, feeding form and other conditions, and is specifically quantified to each age, each day, and each time. In actual operation, quantitative feeding of mulberry can be adopted or the combination of the two can be determined at discretion. Stop mulberry is the last feeding of mulberry before each age of dormancy. For example, for individuals, it means that the silkworms have become motionless, stopped eating mulberry, and entered the dormant state; but for the group, due to the slight difference in development between individuals, the dormant time is also early or late. Therefore, in order to prevent starvation and dormancy, the time of stopping mulberry is also appropriately late. Generally, mulberry can be stopped when there are only a few late-sleeping silkworms in the silkworm bed. In production, the method of evenly spreading a layer of burnt chaff or fresh lime powder on the silkworm bed is usually adopted to achieve the purpose of stopping mulberry, and to promote the drying of the bed to prevent a few early-rising silkworms from eating the dry and shriveled mulberry residues. Silkworm bed and silkworm bed area The silkworm bed is the place for growth and activity. Taking the silkworm bed as a feeding container as an example, in the first and second instars, a polyethylene plastic film should be laid in the bed, and then a white newspaper or gray newspaper should be placed on it, and the silkworms should be fed with mulberry. The area where the silkworms are placed is the silkworm bed area. The silkworm bed area should be adjusted and expanded to adapt to the growth and development of silkworms. If the area is too small, the silkworm heads are too dense, which is easy to cause insufficient and uneven mulberry feeding, and the silkworm body is not strong and uneven; if the area is too large, the silkworm heads are too sparse, which will cause the consumption of silkworm tools, mulberry leaves and labor in the silkworm room. Feeding density, synonymous with silkworm bed area, refers to the number of silkworm heads fed per unit area. The current silkworm bed area after hatching and collecting 25,000 good silkworm eggs in a box is generally: 0.4 for the first age, 2m2 for the second age, 2-4m2 for the second age, 4-10m2 for the third age, 10-20m2 for the fourth age, and 20-35m2 for the fifth age. Set the bed and even the bed. According to the requirements of the number of silkworms collected, the number of silkworms raised, and the appropriate feeding density, the silkworms, sometimes also referring to silkworms of different ages, are placed on a certain silkworm bed area. After the bed is set, due to the crawling of the silkworms or improper feeding, the distribution of silkworm heads in the silkworm bed is uneven. It is necessary to use silkworm chopsticks or directly move the silkworms and leaves from the over-dense area to the sparse area by hand to achieve an even distribution of silkworm heads and ensure the uniformity of group development. Expand the bed and divide the box to adapt to the growth and development of silkworms. The area of ​​the silkworm bed is expanded in time. Expanding the area of ​​silkworms in the same silkworm tray is called expanding the seat. If one silkworm tray is full and needs to be moved to another empty tray for feeding, it is called dividing the tray. The juvenile silkworms have a short age period and grow fast. The growth rate of the silkworm body area is 5 times that of the previous age: 4 times for the first age, 3.5 times for the second age, and 1 time for the third age. The silkworm body area increases by 1 time almost every 12 hours. When the number of mulberry feeding times is only 2-3 times a day, special attention should be paid to advance the expansion of the seat. After the period of less food, medium food, abundant food, and reduced food, the silkworms of each age enter the period of sleep and the period of sleep. The silkworms in the sleep area and the newly sleeping area have shortened bodies, bulging head and chest, and their bodies are milky yellow and shiny. The silkworms that are still in the stage of feeding mulberry have relatively slender bodies and greener bodies. During the development of a group, when about half of the silkworms have fallen asleep or are dormant, and about half of the silkworms are still crawling and eating mulberry, in order to facilitate technical processing in the next instar and ensure that all batches of silkworms develop evenly, it is necessary to add nets to the mulberry, replace the green heads that are still eating mulberry, and put them in another silkworm plaque. This operation is called picking up green heads or picking up late-sleeping silkworms. The late-sleeping silkworms that are too far behind the development progress of the large group should be eliminated. The treatment of waking up from sleep is the main technical link in the breeding process, which includes the treatment of waking up from sleep such as adding dormancy nets, removing dormancy, and waking up from sleep such as batching; the treatment of stopping mulberry, picking late-sleeping silkworms, and protecting during sleep such as dormancy; the treatment of waking up from silkworms such as spreading anti-dead powder, adding nets, and feeding. Feeding the second, third, fourth, and fifth instar silkworms after they wake up from sleep and molt and are fed mulberry for the first time is customarily called feeding. Before feeding, the silkworm bodies and silkworm seats should be sprinkled with a layer of anti-rigidity powder and a layer of burnt bran, and then covered with silkworm nets and fed with mulberry, so as to facilitate the prevention and control of silkworm diseases and the removal of sand. Under the premise that the group development is quite uniform, when about 95% of the individuals have shed their skins and stood up, and the head, commonly known as the mouth by silkworm farmers, changes from grayish white to light brown to dark brown, it is the right time for feeding. Feeding too early can easily damage the mouthparts of the silkworms; feeding too late will cause some early-rising silkworms to fall into a state of hunger. In large-scale production, when the group development gap is not large, the practice of waiting and waiting is generally adopted, that is, feeding mulberry only after all or most of the silkworms have shed their skins and stood up. The first feeding of mulberry at the beginning of the fifth instar is customarily called the big sleep opening leaf. Desanding removes impurities such as residual mulberry, silkworm feces, and silkworm molts accumulated in the silkworm seats, commonly known as silkworm feces or mulberry sand. If too much mulberry sand accumulates in the silkworm bed, it will cause the silkworm bed to steam and emit bad gas, and it will easily breed pathogenic microorganisms and transmit silkworm diseases. Therefore, mulberry sand must be removed in time to keep the silkworm bed clean and dry. Sand removal can be divided into early sand removal, mid-sand removal, and dormant sand removal according to the operation time. The first sand removal at the beginning of each instar, that is, after the silkworms molt, is called early sand removal; at the end of each instar, when the silkworms are about to go to sleep, in order to keep the silkworm bed clean and dry, sand removal before going to sleep is called dormant sand removal; sand removal during each instar is called mid-sand removal. In order to reduce damage to the silkworm body and loss of silkworms, generally, only one dormant sand removal is performed at the first instar, one at the beginning and one at the dormant in the second instar, one at the beginning, mid-sand removal, and one at the dormant in the third instar; once every other day or once a day at the fourth and fifth instars. Using mulberry strip feeding can reduce the number of sand removals or eliminate sand removal. Sand removal method: sprinkle charred bran on the silkworm seat before feeding mulberry (it is not necessary to sprinkle it when the silkworms are four or five years old), then cover the silkworm net, and then evenly spread mulberry leaves on the net. After feeding mulberry once or twice, lift the net before feeding mulberry again, and remove the mulberry sand under the net. Silkworm feces, also known as silkworm sand, are the feces excreted by silkworms after feeding mulberry. It is dark green in color and granular. Its size increases with the age. It is as small as fine sand at the first age, and as big as mung beans at the fifth age. If you raise one box of silkworm seeds (10g ant weight, 25,000 silkworms), you can get 100-150kg of fresh silkworm feces in all ages. After air drying, you can get 50-55kg of air-dried silkworm sand or about 45kg of dry silkworm sand. Silkworm feces composition: crude protein accounts for 16.7%, crude fat accounts for 3.7%/crude fiber accounts for 19%, soluble nitrogen-free matter accounts for 45%, and ash accounts for 15.6%. Silkworm feces are rich in nutrients and are excellent fertilizers and ideal feed for pigs, sheep and fish. Silkworm feces are also rich in chlorophyll and vitamin E, K pectin, etc., and are relatively economical raw materials for extracting these chemicals. Silkworm feces are also used to make silkworm feces pillows, which are believed to have cooling and blood pressure lowering effects. The silkworm seats of Fu Sangyi Silkworms and Lost Silkworms are cold and damp, too much mulberry is given, and the sand is not removed in time, resulting in thick mulberry sand in the silkworm seats, causing some individuals to remain in the mulberry sand and eat mulberry. These individuals are called Fu Sangyi Silkworms. If you are not careful when removing the sand, some of the Fu Sangyi Silkworms will be thrown away along with the silkworm feces. In production, all the silkworm heads that are reduced for unknown reasons and cannot be recorded are generally referred to as lost silkworms.