Ol’ Guffin’s got ‘im a whole pen o’ those ee-rak-nids. Shore am glad he’s seven furrow’s down the way. Gave it a fancy name, callin’ it Guffin’s Orb Weaver Emporium. So long as they don’t get a hankerin’ fer my crops or livestock, he can keep ‘em. Just don’t spect me to come round gawkin at his “wonders of silk production”. They give me the shakes somethin’ awful.
Spider Ranches are a relatively new business venture, primarily in southern Zyclest near the Grask Forest border where acquiring the Giant Orb Weavers necessary is less costly. The Ranch will host several large cuboid buildings called Silk Barns made of either a dense oak or steel, whichever is in the owners budget for overhead costs. Each holds no more than three spiders and has 4-6 slats that travers its width where large metal sheets1 can be quickly slid in and out to section of portions of the building. Other livestock may be held nearby in more traditional barns and are usually the primary food source.
Silk Harvest
Each end of the long Silk Barns has an inset ladder that leads to a peep hole. Every couple of weeks two Ranchers climb the ladders and one looks through their end2 as the other3 covers and uncovers their hole at regular intervals. If the counter succeeds at counting the number of times the opposite hole was covered the harvest waits. If he is unable to tell or is off by a significant margin a harvest begins in three days. First the spiders are baited into one side of the Silk Barn with fresh food4, and that section is then locked. Then several gatherers enter carefully armed with shears5 and spinning rods 6. Once the gatherers are finished and have exited the safe portion of the Silk Barn, it is unlocked and life for the Orb Weavers continues as before.
A large vat of water is brought to a boil using a Heating-circle and the spinning rods are dipped into it until the final strands are removed. The individual strands of silk are collected and hung to dry for use in making ropes, nets, and twine.
History
Spider Silk played a large part in the Zyclester Empire’s success in The Magic War. It has a tensile strength unrivaled by any traditional rope or twine making for both a durable cloth armor and more powerful siege weaponry. It had been theorized as a useful tool for centuries but a safe and reliable way of collection was not found until several would be Zyclestian researchers developed the current method around 2788 AoN.
To this day Zyclest attempts to keep their silk production under wraps in the case that they may use the monopoly they have on it as before. Despite this there is of course a bustling black market which pays a handsome price for the rare material. Single spools about the size of hay bales go for up to 50 Slivers.
Footnotes
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The process of setting a sheet into a slat is known as locking. ↩
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Called the counter ↩
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Called the tester ↩
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They will have been left unfed after the counter and tester determine a harvest is in order. The three days is both prep time and time to ensure the spiders are hungry. ↩
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Spider Silk has an extremely high tensile strength, but can relatively easily be cut with shears and scraped off the walls with a hoe or shovel. ↩
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Long wooden sticks with iron spikes, nails in some cases, jutting out in an even spiral until a four-fingers width from the base where it is held by a gatherer. ↩