Who knows! As soon as I returned to the mountains to farm, I encountered a natural disaster.

From the time of birth, it eats and eats constantly, and then it goes to great lengths to form a cocoon and then emerges as a butterfly.

Other butterflies will be reborn after breaking out of their cocoons, but only silk moths will spend their lives after breaking out of their cocoons just to continue.

No wonder it was written into poetry by the ancients.

It took a few more days for the two of them to open the bamboo net. There were not many silk moths still alive inside, but most of them were female silk moths. There were also male silk moths that were not dead and had already spread their wings.

The female silk moth's wing feathers are relatively small and have no ability to fly. They are furry and off-white when viewed from the front, which is quite cute. The male silk moth's wing feathers are larger, and the back of the wing feathers is slightly creamy yellow.

Isn’t it quite cute?

In the past, Zhao Yeqing saw on the Internet that someone bought fried female silkworm moths that had not laid eggs. Their stomachs were full of silkworm eggs, and they crackled like firecrackers when bitten into them.

The silkworm eggs that are still in the belly of the silkworm moth and those that have just been produced are all light yellow, not the black that has become apparent after a while. They don't look very disgusting and scary, otherwise the belly full of black seeds may not be easy to eat.

To get a silk moth to eat, you must first cut off the wings on both sides, leaving only the chubby body in the middle for frying.

It is said to be very fragrant, but Zhao Yeqing doesn't want to try it. If he wants to eat bugs, there are bamboo worms and bee pupae to choose from. Maybe he can't accept it in his heart and doesn't think that these cute and furry things can be used as food.

There is also the use of the 'essence' of newly hatched silkworm chrysalises to make wine. This was exaggerated and publicized, and many people were deceived before the ground cracked. In fact, the stuff was just the excrement of silkworms that had been held in the cocoon for more than ten days.

The silkworm moths were collected and placed on the other side. After being dried in the sun, they could be used as medicine for the whole body. Zhao Yeqing ate this stuff but it was useless. Mu Xi said it could benefit the kidneys.

The silkworm eggs are collected and placed on the dustpan silkworm seat, waiting to hatch.

Not all silkworm eggs can hatch. Some female silkworm moths that have not been mated will lay eggs, just like chickens lay eggs, but they will not hatch.

The temperature in the basement was about 23 degrees. The two of them kept the basement door open 19 hours a day during this period. If they closed the basement door, the temperature would only be about degrees. That temperature is too low for silkworm eggs to hatch.

Last year, about two to three hundred silkworms were harvested. The number of eggs laid by a female silkworm moth was between 400 and 500. After excluding the unmated female silkworm moths and some male silkworm moths, Zhao Yeqing made an estimate this year. Tens of thousands of silkworms can be hatched.

The demand for mulberry leaves is a big project.

Zhao Yeqing thought for a while, and after waiting until the silkworm eggs turned black and purple, he packed most of the silkworm eggs in sealed bags and planned to put them in the refrigerator.

The first time I raised silkworms when I was a child, my teacher took the silkworm eggs out of the refrigerator. It is said that they can be kept in the refrigerator for about half a year. If they are kept in the refrigerator for about half a year, they will not work well and will reduce the hatching rate.

After controlling the quantity, the mulberry leaves at home should be enough for the silkworms to eat.

Based on their experience in planting last year, the two calculated their food intake from their notes. Based on the calculation that a silkworm needs to eat nearly a pound of mulberry leaves in a lifetime, the mulberry leaves at home cannot supply the remaining half of the silkworm.

If it's not enough, then it's not enough. If you really can't afford it, just feed less. Anyway, the two of them won't need so much. It's not certain whether it can be done even after taking a step back.

Zhao Yeqing comforted himself in this way. Mu Xi curled his lips and said nothing, silently putting the plan to return to the village to transplant mulberry trees on the agenda.

Some people may appear calm and calm on the surface, but deep down they still want to do everything well.

The older generation likes to joke that this is called the fate of hard work. Mu Xi thinks that he can just passively possess this fate.

He didn't intend to persuade her, and thought there was nothing wrong with it. The mountains were boring day after day, with nothing new happening. No matter how high or low they were, as long as she was interested, she could just do it.

Even if you are tired of doing the things you are interested in, you will still be happy doing them.

The eggs are stored in the refrigerator and cannot be placed directly in the air outlet of the refrigerator, otherwise they will be easily frozen.

This sericulture farmer left no notes. They rummaged through the entire house and found only a few books related to sericulture. The pages were yellowed, old, and some were even eaten by insects. Even the fonts on them were from the early period. Traditional Chinese characters.

Turning to the last page of the book, I saw that the publication date was almost close to the time when the People's Republic of China was first founded.

One of the books was read vertically, and it contained traditional Chinese characters and the pages were yellowed. Zhao Yeqing found it a little difficult to read it. He finally found some knowledge points in it and hurriedly copied it down in a notebook to avoid having to start over again next time he needed it. Identify it again.

The first batch of silk moths that laid eggs have gradually died. If you are lucky, you can still see that your eggs have hatched.

The silkworm seats were densely packed with small black bugs, like ordinary small caterpillar larvae. Hundreds or thousands of them hatched at the same time, squirming on the silkworm seats and eating mulberry leaves. Zhao Yeqing's scalp went numb.

The silkworms during this period are first-instar silkworms that grow very fast. In just a few days, they can lose their black appearance and turn into white and plump silkworm babies.

The two of them had made two types of silkworm seats before, one was a hollow strip, and the other was a dustpan placed on a shelf with fresh mulberry leaves in the dustpan.

Last time, the number of silkworms was not large, so they used dustpan silkworm seats to raise silkworms. Now the number of silkworms is more than ten times more than before. The two people moved the silkworm babies that had molted into second-instar silkworms to different rooms. On the silkworm seat.

The silkworms have grown up a bit, and the mulberry tree planted outside the yard has also grown a lot compared to last year. The newly cut branches are green, like a child who has not had a full meal in a long time and is gradually growing stronger under careful feeding.

Zhao Yeqing tried it based on the mulberry branch residues on the ground that he had seen in the house of the silkworm farmer before. He also cut off the twigs of the mulberry tree and placed them on the silkworm seat. The silkworm babies that had grown into the second instar silkworm were very energetic. The body is also long enough.

He easily climbed onto the mulberry branches and gnawed around the mulberry leaves.

The mulberry leaves placed on the silkworm seats on the other side are still the same as before. They are fresh leaves. This is used as a control group. I want to compare the two mulberry leaves to see which feeding method is better.

Observing silkworms eating is a very stress-relieving thing. Zhao Yeqing sometimes catches a silkworm and puts it in a small box with fresh mulberry leaves. Then he takes it outside, sits in the yard, puts the box next to him, and shakes it. The rocking chair watched it eat.

The joy of feeding addiction is here.