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[Blue_Dwarf]

I ordered some spiders from the drow, which I intend to use as a silk farm.

The idea is to chain a prisoner kobold or something not far from a chained spider, and use a raising bridge to open/block line of sight between them. Or maybe use a fortification instead of a chain. Spider shoots webs -> profit.

However I'm not sure if a prisoner can die of hunger or thirst like that. Can spiders shoot webs if they see an inaccessible enemy behind a fortification?

[Pascale]

Isn't there a way to farm silk moths in hives?

[Blue_Dwarf]

Maybe.

I think a spider would be faster and less buggy, and more dwarfy.

[Meph]

Yes, yes and yes.

[Blue_Dwarf]

Hmm I'll probably need a Bronze Colossus then.

[Meph]

Why? Drop any prisoner on a pedestal, a pillar without access... build a 1zlvl chute above it. Have the spider pastured next to the pedestal, 3 tiles away, with a drawbridge. The bridge doesnt give access to the pedestal, but instead block line-of-sight.

Lower bridge, spider shoots, webs everywhere, raise bridge, spider stops. Collect silk. To avoid the creature on the pillar scaring away your workers, build line-of-sight-blocking bridges around that as well.

[Pascale]

Yes, yes and yes.

Was that in response to the three points made in the post directly above yours or to the main point of each of the three points?

I apologize for incessant idiotic questions but I must wonder about silk moths.

[Blue_Dwarf]

I just had an epic idea. I can capture a forest spider, and pit it against a tame spider, and they'll shoot silk at each other.

$$$

[ElenaRoan]

I just had an epic idea. I can capture a forest spider, and pit it against a tame spider, and they'll shoot silk at each other.

$$$

That's how I've been setting mine up, except I usually use the giant drow spider mounts the goblins bring along though *grin*

[moseythepirate]

I've been playing a migrantless fortress where I rely on silk moths for silk production and have a significant hive economy (I also use bees for wax n'mead, and cochineals for the lulz). It's simple, steady, and automatic, but it is reliable. A little lacking in FUN, but I get that from only having 7 adult dwarves and being at war with the automatons and elves on the first year.

[Meph]

Was that in response to the three points made in the post directly above yours or to the main point of each of the three points?

yes. Silk moths are slower, but you get a lot of silk later on. Beekeeping is somewhat buggy (vanilla df bug), if you have more then one beekeeper he might stand around and do nothing. and less dwarvy... well, silk moths are safer and simpler the make then a spider-silk farm.

silk moths give silk, while some kinds of spiders give rare silk, which is more valuable btw.

[BoffoDorf]

As Meph alluded to, never have more than one beekeeper as the entire system is rather buggy in vanilla.

wiki says this..

Dwarves have a hard time splitting hives. They also have a hard time keeping track of wild colonies of bees that die out. Bug:3981 Having the beekeeping labor enabled on only one dwarf at a time may alleviate these problems. Removing and rebuilding empty hives usually fixes beekeepers stuck trying to install colonies. You can see which ones are empty and remove them the same time with t

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=3981

[tenshi99]

how about web turret instead of spider ?

[Urist McTeellox]

Oh hey, a resurrected thread on silk farming.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Silk_farming describes a pretty good set-up that should work in both vanilla and MWDF.

~ T

[CuriousCreativity]

I had one set-up with a kobold trap-spider and a captured sneak.  Oddly the outer bridges weren't needed as the workers weren't, for whatever reason, scared and there were no cancelations.