The Silk Farm

Today we saw a very unusual farm - a silk farm. The farmer raises silk worms in very carefully controlled conditions and harvests their silk to send overseas to Cambodia. He has an arrangement with some villages there so that the people will wash and then spin the silk into threads. They add some of their silk too as he can not produce enough yet. They weave the threads into scarves and material and sell it back to him for his shop at the farm. The people are poor and are happy to have the work to get money for their families.

Farming silk worms is very complicated. This farm at Margaret River in Western Australia is the first and only  silk farm in Australia.

 The silk worm eggs are frozen so that they are tricked into thinking they had a winter season then warmed again so that they hatch, much faster than they would under natural conditions. Special mulberry trees are grown under a hothouse for year round food for the silk worms.Iit was very interesting and quite unusual. 

The silk worms are put into round tray holes so the cocoon is rounded in shape. It is easier to harvest and spin the silk from a rounded cocoon.

The worms (caterpillars) are raised in little dishes that are cleaned out regularly so they have only fresh leaves  to eat and a clean environment. Every egg is tracked through its stages including age, quality of cocoon, colour and size. 

The parent moths  can not fly. The eggs turn dark in colour after a few days. The female is the biggest moth.