What the app keeps for your silkworms
This is a short page because the app does few things for silkworms, and it is better to say so plainly. There is no product for cocoons or silk: the quick log only has milk, eggs, meat, wool, cheese and honey. The worms are not registered one by one, but each batch can be a group counted by quantity. What the app keeps is what you spend, what you sell and the reminders, for the whole operation or for each batch.
- Costs for each batch. The eggs, the mulberry leaves, the lime or disinfectant for the beds, the mountages and labour are recorded as expenses, with a category and a description, and assigned to the batch they belong to.
- Cocoon sales as income. When you sell the cocoons you record the income and assign it to the batch. Each month you see what comes in, what goes out and the trend over the last six months.
- Reminders. The moults, cleaning or changing the bedding, disinfecting the rearing house or setting the mountages: one reminder for each date, with a notification on your phone. Those that come back at a fixed interval can repeat.
On the free plan you have up to 2 groups and 10 reminders, and assigning costs and sales to a batch is free. The Pro plan has no such limits and shows each batch’s balance.
A tight calendar
The larval stage lasts around 25 to 30 days, with 4 moults. During that time the larva eats more and more leaf, and in the last instar it eats most of what the whole batch consumes. During the moults you stop giving leaf, and when the larva finishes eating the mountages have to be set on time so it can spin the cocoon. The moults do not fall at a fixed interval, so at the start of each batch you create a reminder for each expected date, and the notification reaches you on the day it is due. Cleaning the beds every so many days can be a single reminder that repeats.
Knowing whether the batch paid
With the mulberry leaves, the eggs and the labour recorded as costs, and the cocoon sale as income, all assigned to the batch, at the end you see how much that batch earned. On the Pro plan the batch’s record adds it up for you: income, expenses and balance. On the free plan, if you run one batch at a time the dates are enough to add it up; if they overlap, assigning each cost to its batch keeps them apart. It is the simplest way to compare one batch with another.
Record in the field, sync when you reopen it. For now, wait for the app to finish syncing before you close it. How it works today.