The Tiniest Fiber Animals

are not baby doll sheep or angora rabbits.  The newest livestock at the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers are silkworms!  I took a silk class back in January, and was given a small number of silk worm eggs.  I took them out of hibernation (the refrigerator) on April Fool's Day.  I wasn't even sure that they would wake up, but on April 15th, they started showing signs of life.  They looked like tiny snips of thread.  As son as I put a few mulberry leaves in their home, they started to eat.  Over the next 3 or 4 days, they all  woke up and now I have to harvest mulberry leaves about every day.  The biggest ones have already started to shed their first skin.

Here they are in their new home - a lettuce tub lined with paper towels.  I put the leaves in about 5 minutes before taking this picture. Next time I'll add a coin for scale.

Say hello to Mary, Harry, Larry, Terri...