If you are interested in hatching your own eggs on demand and want extra eggs to be stored away and hatch as needed, this is the economical solution for you.

As we all know, cocoons raised from chow DO NOT necessarily hatch. In fact, most silkworms raised on chow probably will never get to cocoon stage. But you want bulk eggs, and you don't want to have to pay upwards of $100 to have them expressed shipped, or ice packed and still risk being warmed up and thus compromising hatch rate and having your money wasted in the long run.  Then, this is what I suggest:

I am soliciting interest to see if there are customers who want to breed their own silk moths but do not have access to leaves. I will send you 12 LIVE cocoons that are due to emerge within one week of each other.  Each female moth on average lays 400 to 600 eggs. Each male moth can mate with 3 different females in his lifetime and have a life span of 7 to 10 days.  Oviposition generally takes place 24 hrs after mating and after egg laying, the female moth is completely spent and may be fed to your pets. Retain the male moth for mating with subsequently hatched females. Moths do not eat, fly nor drink. Simply place them on cardstock paper in a container and let them mate and lay eggs. Male moths tend to emerge first. Be ware that some moths may need to be cut out of their cocoons. Unlike silkworm caterpillars, moths have a tendency to climb onto the sides of the retaining structure and lay eggs on any surface. You may have to scrape them off if they are laid on plastic.

Being that the silkworms available here are hybrids, their eggs retain characteristics of both the one generation and two generation silkworms. That means, after your eggs are laid, there is a good chance that a percentage WILL hatch within 2 weeks. There will also be some eggs that will turn from yellow to purple and go into diapause. (Some eggs that do not diapause, laid by the same moth, may have head pigmentation, or may not at all, but remain dark instead of purple, and still hatch.)  So, that means you have some silkworms you can raise right away!

After your have collected all your hatchlings, put the remaining purple eggs in a ziploc bag and store in a fridge crisper. Make sure you mark the dates. In about two months, bring the eggs out as you need and hatch them on demand!  By October, these eggs are ready to be hatched whenever needed.  In the summer time, I should continue to have live silkworms raised on leaves for sale.

The cost for 12 live cocoons PLUS one 1/2lb bag of dry mulberry chow, a piping bag, all for only $40 shipped! And remember, eggs laid in natural pattern has the best hatch rate, because they are NOT overlapped and do not land on the sides when poured into petri dish. Nor will they melt in their own glue!  USING SEX LIMITED ZEBRA SILKWORMS. WITH Female to Male RATIO OF 8 to 4!!

Please contact me directly and pre-order. No deposit needed.  The cocoons will be ready by early summer as these egg layers will only be raised on the best leaves during spring time. As experience tells me, this is your MOST nutritious leaves of the year and therefore, the most prolific egg layers and near 100% emerge rate. As the season progresses, the emerge rate goes way down and eggs laid are far fewer.  Remember, it takes a lot of work to get these silkworms from hatchlings to a mature silkworm, because of the amount of leaves it will eat!!