can anyone read chinese or knows what this says?

The first character is 蚕(can in Mandarin), means silkworm or cocoon.
The second character is 宗(zong in Mandarin ), means clan or ancestor.

蚕宗　means a small group as clan in Chiese society in the past. It maybe still exist today.

More about Chinese Language

http://www.chinafacttours.com/travel_guide/learn-simple-chinese.html

just by looking at the characters (ie. the way each stroke goes), the second character seems to be é³¥, which means bird.

Terrible writing!
I think it's 蚕宗. But I don't what it means as a Chinese, probably it's a kind of silk...

The first character is 蚕, means cocoon.
But I dont know what the second character is.