Monarchs!

Our most recent journey has been learning about and raising Monarchs. The kids have been absolutely enchanted by them.

When the larvae first arrived they were so tiny. The girls picked a few to name and keep in separate containers and then we placed the others on the milkweed plants in an enclosure. It appeared, when they first arrived, that we had 10 larvae, but we must have had some eggs on the milkweed. In all, we ended up with 14 larvae.

We had read that they were less hardy than the Painted Ladies that we have raised previously, and that turned out to be true. In the 3 years we raised Painted Ladies (5-10 each year) from Insectlore we only had 1 larvae that did not complete the metamorphic process. Of the 14 Monarch larvae we began with, only 4 pupated. Interestingly, they were the 3 that were in containers and then 1 that was raised, for the most part, in the enclosure.

We now have 2 butterflies and we are still waiting on the other 2 to eclose. The second two did pupate about a week after the first two, so we are expecting them to emerge in a few more days (maybe by Friday or Saturday). The two that are now fluttering around in our enclosure are a male and a female, so we are hoping to have a few eggs to start the process again.

Madeline loves to watch them and hold them. She goes out to see them at every opportunity. I think her favorite thing is hand-feeding them.

We have used the Monarchs in the Classroom Curriculum Guide for K-2 to learn more about Monarchs. You can find information on that program at the University of Minnesota at http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/

We have also really enjoyed Family Butterfly Book : Projects, Activities, and a Field Guide to 40 Favorite North American Species Butterflies by Rick Mikula and Butterfly Book: A Kid's Guide to Attracting, Raising and Keeping Butterflies by Kersten Hamilton for learning about butterflies and how to care for them.

As it is getting pretty late, I will post some pictures of our Monarchs tomorrow along with some of the great books we have read about Monarchs and some of the interesting and educational websites we have found about butterflies, butterfly gardens, and Monarchs.

Goodnight!