Raising a Monarch butterfly

[Dr. John]

This morning our Monarch successfully emerged from its chrysalis.  We left it drying and expanding its wings in our native flower garden.

We have seen Monarchs periodically laying eggs in our milkweed, but have never had a caterpillar.  We assume that the eggs or emerging caterpillars were being eaten by something.  So this year, when we saw a Monarch laying an egg, we brought the whole plant inside.  It hatched out and we subsequently raised it on milkweed leaves until it became a chrysalis.  Although we've read about and seen footage of this process, it was still quite magical to experience it firsthand.

Hope our girl has a successful reproductive life!

[Dr. John]

A monarch recently laid eggs on our emerging milkweed, so we have brought two inside to try our luck again.  We'll monitor the other ones outside to see how they fare.

[Howieh]

I'm too lazy to go through the entire process from egg to butterfly so I collect large healthy(?) caterpillars (usually on the Leslie Spit) and bring them home. I have milkweed growing on my front lawn so providing fresh food for a few days is easy. I have a ready made setup which I use every year and when all the caterpillars have 'morphed' I move them to a frame that sits on the window sill beside my computer. You can usually tell when a butterfly is ready to emerge and if you cover the chrysalis the night before you can be ready the next morning to shoot stills or videos when emergence occurs (keep it covered until you are ready but don't wait too long after daybreak or the butterfly will be hanging when you uncover it!).

[Dr. John]

It is a bit of a process to go through, but we found it rewarding last year so we'll try it again.  Our two eggs have hatched and we now have two tiny caterpillars munching away on milkweed.