Monarchs!

About two weeks ago Hannah found a monarch caterpillar. This was very exciting as it was the first non-invasive species of caterpillar we have raised. We have a milkweed supply in our neighborhood, so the girls would get milkweed leaves for the caterpillar everyday. This is the only leaf they eat. After having Dewy (the name given him by Hannah) a few days he climbed to the top of his container, hung in a j shape and turned into a chrysalis. Thursday he came out, along with two other monarchs that the boys had received at our homeschool co-op the week before. Dewy was actually a boy, and we released him yesterday along with one of the other two. The third one had issues with wing formation so it can't fly, the kids are having fun playing with it and we've been feeding it orange. We have learned a LOT about monarchs in the past couple weeks. We got some really good books out of the library and read them during school. Monarchs are amazing, they have 3-4 generations a summer and the last generation of the summer migrates down to Mexico. The earlier generations live for about six weeks, while the last one of the summer lives for about six months! Here are some pictures of our monarchs!

This is Dewy as a caterpillar

Hanging out before he turned into a chrysalis. 

Here is a chrysalis, they are pretty amazing, this is one we still have in the house today, as Damen found a monarch a couples days after Hannah found hers, so this is Damen's it will probably emerge in the next couple days. When the chrysalis are found they are a beautiful green with gold dots and a gold stripe near the top. 

About a day before they emerge their chrysalis turns clear and you can see the butterfly inside! 

The first of the three that emerged on Thursday. They came out super fast! It was crazy, I thought it would take a lot longer, but they had emerged and pumped up their wings, which we read could take up to two hours, in minutes, at least the first two....

Hannah hanging out watching the butterflies, which came out between 4:30 pm and 7 pm, which the book we read said they normally come out between 9-10 am, I'm thinking it might be because they were inside or something that they came out so late. 

Here's the one with the wings that didn't fully pump up. 

Friday morning we let them go!

Here they are walking up out of the cage

They needed a little help getting out, here Hannah is  with one Lilac, I think they named her, they had orginally named all the caterpillars boy names, but this one was a girl, you can tell because the boys have a black dot that releases scent on their wings. 

Excited that it's flying away! 

Dewy flew up to a pine tree and hung out there for awhile. 

Hannah with one on her. :-)