Show careful coddling though the silkworm silk worn does nothing but sleep and eat and spin a cocoon during the 65 days of his existence he requires careful coddling during all of his stages and where the labor difficulty comes he has to have a nurse to feed him by hand and change his bed and keep him out of a draft and hes very particular what he eats tender young mulberry leaves that are just as old as he is silkworms hatch just as the buds on the mulberry break into leaf not damp not hot not bruised nor torn but slightly wilted and cut up fine each silkworm consumes about 2200 pounds of leaves during his life cycle and is fed four to six times daily during his more ravenous stages he must have fresh air during feedings but never be in a direct current during thunderstorms the windows must be kept closed in japan the heat for hatching the worms used to be applied by contact with the human body but now simple incubators cuba tors are used it requires silkworms to yield 12 pounds of raw silk so theres the labor problem definitely |