Monarch Day Care

We are raising Monarchs.  I have been wanting to do that for a LOONNGG time.

Now I have lots of caterpillars and eggs–mostly eggs.   On Thursday, 7 August, we saw out of our window, a Monarch laying eggs on some milkweed around 1:30.

On Friday, we collected two eggs.  We snipped off some of the milkweed leaves and we also learned two caterpillars there and got them.  We put them in airtight containers with milkweed leaves.

Saturday one egg hatched!  We also washed out their frass (caterpillar scat).

We had four containers on Saturday.

• Blue lid container the caterpillar is .5 cm.
• Peanut butter container the caterpillar is .5+ cm.  (I don’t have an accurate ruler)
• “The Hatchery” has one egg with a black spot.  We think it is a head, it means it will be hatching soon.
• Butterfly rearing container has one egg.

On Sunday we found 5 caterpillar eggs at church and four more in a field near our house.  We put them in The Hatchery.  We also found one large caterpillar near pupation stage, probably 1 to 1 1/2 inches long.

We put some milkweed in the refrigerator for caterpillar food later.  We fed the caterpillars fresh milkweed and cleaned out the frass.

Today’s– Monday– stats.  I have an accurate ruler now 🙂

• Got new cage for big caterpillar.  He is 4.5 cm long.  Eats one leaf in one night!  He is eating another leaf.  He is a EATING MACHINE!
• Blue lid container the caterpillar is .9 cm.   Color is darker than before.
• Peanut butter container the caterpillar is .8 cm and fat!
• “The Hatchery” has one egg with a black spot and 6 white eggs.
• Butterfly rearing container has one egg.  I think we have a new caterpillar but I am not sure.  We can’t find the caterpillar but we think we see frass on the bottom.

I know that Monarchs are in their eggs 3 to 5 days.  Then they are caterpillars for two weeks and grow to about 5 cm.  They make a chrysalis and turn into a butterfly!  Then they will live different lengths of time.   Monarchs go down to Mexico or Lower California in fall.

I will keep you updated!

Andrea has a blog about what she is learning too.   She is doing a very good job!