Silkworm Farm

Silkworm Farm
(Building)
Location
	Compound
Size
	11 x 11
Requirements
	Entomology 2 (Skill) ;

Sources

This building becomes available to build or use when you learn the Entomology 2 (Skill).

Cost

200 Treated Boards - Nontoxic ✓
25 Papyrus Paper ✓
50 Iron ✓
50 Sheet Glass ✓
10 Copper Sheeting ✓
1 Thermometer ✓
20 Paint - Turquoise ✓
20 Paint - Pale Turquoise ✓

Use

Silkworms generate Raw Silk when fed the proper Thistles, grown in a Thistle Garden. If they are not fed, they will still survive.

The Silkworms go in a 4-day cycle, starting from when you build the farm:

12 hours waiting for the next generation to be laid.
3 days eggs waiting to hatch. During this period the farm will display the current requirements.
12 hours either growing and eating (if fed), or simply surviving.

The type of thistle required will change after a cycle where the silkworms have been fed at least one thistle. If they are not fed, no silk will be produced and the thistle requirements will not change.

It may be a good idea to set aside a small amount of thistle from successful (or even failed) batches, to have thistle inventory available should a farm have requirements that can not be met for several cycles.

If a silkworm farm goes through many void cycles without finding a recipe for thistle and you have nothing in inventory to use, try the following options:

Ask if anyone else has the correct thistle in their inventory-only 1 thistle is needed to change the requirements.
An extreme method, but sometimes the only option, is to tear down and rebuild the farm. Have Salvage Techniques 7 or try to find someone who does.
If Advanced Silkworm Farming has been opened, use Silkworm Unguent to change the thistle requirements.

Output

The amount of Raw Silk returned after the silkworms are fed is based on the amount of Thistle they were given (in addition to a small random factor), but it is not a simple linear relationship.

Some T11 data:

             120 thistle --> 295 raw silk
             240 thistle --> 410 r s
             480 thistle --> 455-488 r s
             1000 thistle --> ratio around 0.5 yield per thistle

Kasiya mentioned in chat that output had been increased a lot for small amounts of thistle and nerfed for large amounts.

In cases where volume is more important than efficiency, it may still be profitable to operate at a lower or less efficient ratio in exchange for the additional raw production.