Silk Worm Farms

I decided that because we didn't go out of town for the break like most of the kids friends, we needed to do something fun in Bangalore. Vickie, an expat who is in our branch here, recommended taking them to the Silk Worm Farms. I wish that I had taken my parents, Alan's parents, or Katie and Tracy there. It was really neat to see how they raise the worms, trade the cocoons, and make the silk from the cocoons. Then you get to see them weaving the silk material.

The actual silk worms are kept in farms that a about a 5 minute drive from the trading and factory. It was really neat to see. You walk into the peoples homes and they have a room with silk worms sitting on shelves of mulberry leaves. We went to 2 different homes so they could show the kids the different stages. The first one had new worms, and the 2nd one had worms that were 25 days old, and getting ready to make the cocoons.

Ethan holding a 25 day old silk worm.
You can see the shelves behind him. I didn't get a picture of the shelves.

 The farms not only had silk worms, but they also had cows, and chickens. Ethan is very hands on, and they let him feed and hold the chickens too. He loved it! Also, they had monkeys all over in the trees. Annie loved that part.

Once the cocoons are made, they take the cocoons to the market. They showed us how they bid with each other on how much the buyer will pay for the cocoons. I imagine it to be something like a cattle auction.

This is a picture of a buyer and a farmer. They had just decided on a price. We got to follow their cocoons through the whole process.

Close up of cocoons. They felt like cotton balls.


So after they decide how much they will pay for each kg of cocoons, they take them in to be weighed.



After they are weighed they put about 100 lbs of cocoons into a big sheet, and wrap it up.



Then it takes 3 men to lift it up and this guy hauls them to the buyers processing plant.

We followed this guy to the processing plant. Yes, he is riding a bicycle and carrying about 100 lbs. of silk worms on his head.

We followed them down a small alley into a home where they were spinning the silk off of the cocoons.

 First they store all the cocoons on these pallets while they wait.

 Then when they are ready for them, they bring them into this room where there are probably about 10 ladies sitting at boiling pots of water where they boil the cocoons. This kills the worm inside and makes it so that they can pull the silk threads off. The lady's hand in this picture is picking up and pulling the thread off of a cooled down cocoon. Notice the baby hanging from the ceiling taking a nap over the boiling pot of water. You can't see it very well in the picture, but the thread she is pulling off is being run by a machine up and over her head to the spools behind her.

These are the machines that are spinning the thread into big spools. 

When they take it off of the machine it looks like this. Now it can be dyed into many different colors.

 Ethan really wanted a picture of all the dead worms when they are finished.

We then followed the thread to another home where they are weaving it into silk materials. The machines are so noisy I don't know how anyone could live in the house, but there was a man sitting and watching TV just outside the door to this room. We could also see their kitchen, so I know people live in this house.