Monarch Butterfly

Recently, a friend gave us a monarch butterfly chrysalis.  She had gone to a 'butterfly class' over the summer and had planned on introducing them to her public school class at the start of this year.  She explained how she went about collecting the caterpillars from the milkweed in her field and feeding them while they were in that stage, then after they transformed themselves to the chrysalis, she was able to transfer them from the attachment that the caterpillar had originally made for itself to a string.  She was taught how to tie them in her class, and I don't know that I would try to do it myself without being taught, as I would fear hurting them, but she already had transferred it for me. 

I brought it home and hung it from a low hanging pendant light that we have over one of our rarely used sections of kitchen counter where we were sure to see it everyday.  It was even beautiful in this chrysalis stage.  The pretty pale green color was dotted with what looks like pure gold paint.  It was explained to me that it is believed that this gold instigated the naming of this butterfly because of the look of gold and the association with royalty. 

I had seen the later stage chrysalis' that were hanging in her sun room and noticed that the later ones had turned a darker color.  Almost black.  So, I was not in too big of a hurry to move our little friend's location.  My plan was to build a netted surround around it so that if and when it emerged, it would be somewhat protected from the dogs and cats living in my home. 

Well, earlier today, I had looked at it and it did not look much different than it had originally.  So, once again, I put off worrying about changing it's environment.  On a break from school work, my daughter was standing near the counter and exclaimed to me that the butterfly had emerged.  Actually, it was something like, "uh, Mom, the butterfly just plopped out on to the counter..." 

Sure enough he had.  I transferred him quickly to a small container that we have added a few cut flowers from our garden and a paper towel wet with sugar water to get it by on feeding until he had gotten his body under control and the weather permitted us to release him. 

I am pretty excited about this.  You may want to look into doing something like this with your family.  It doesn't really matter your age or the ages of your children.  It is beautiful and amazing.  I put my five year old god daughter on a video call and let her watch the new butterfly while it dried itself and learned to walk about.  She was so excited and instructed me to make sure I kept it supplied with plenty of flowers. 

I did a quick search for information on the monarch on the Internet and found many things that may be of interest to different children of different ages and stages.  I will attach a few links below in my links section.  If you have milkweed near you, consider gathering up a few of these yellow and black striped caterpillars.  Be sure to supply it with plenty of the leaves of the milkweed as they thrive on it and they eat like crazy!  Do a little research.  There is very little to it and it will create memories that will never be forgotten!