It has been a big week for the silkworms. The stage of audible munching has been reached. I come out in the morning and there is just about no leaf left. I now have 3 trays of silkworms.
Minutes after I add more leaves, holes appear and heads poke through them. keeping up the supply is a big job.
Meanwhile, the critter action in our backyard ramped up to a swarm of bees, hanging from a metal arch with a rose bush on it.
I found a friendly beekeeper who agreed to come and collect them. I didn’t realise I would be a participant. He took pity on me and lent me a cover for my head and face and upper body. He was wearing shorts and a t shirt! I shook the archway and he held up a box and caught the swarm as it dropped in.
They seem to have settled in. Here they are heading in and out in the morning sun.
The beekeeper noticed a second swarm in next door’s tree. We hoped they might be two parts of the same swarm, but apparently not. That koala shaped blob silhouetted against the sky is a mass of bees to high to reach. They might be with us for some time to come.
Meanwhile in backyard news, the biggest carrot ever grown at our place. I guess I still think of myself as someone who does not grow carrots, and forgot to check on them.
And the leeks and rhubarb are in. Rhubarb with ginger and vanilla and orange this week. Mmmm.
Local & Bespoke 
ooh, they are getting big and scary now. are you prpared to kill them for the silk when they pupate, or do you have another method?
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I am prepared to stifle the pupae, yes. I could not face so many moths last year so that is what I did for a lot of them. I know some people find that horrible… but I feed caterpillars to my chickens and squash snails in my garden regularly… and won’t go on to make other gruesome points!
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Are you keeping the bees in a hive of your own now? Do you have the colony collapse in Australia too? That is a massive carrot! You can invite Bugs Bunny for dinner and still have enough to go around. : )
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No, those bees have gone to a new happy home, but we may be about to become a home for some “gentle bees”! We don;t have CCD here so far, as far as I know. So awful. Good to know we can feed ALL our friends carrot!!
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the silkworms look cute!
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I think so too 🙂
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