Some chrysalises go to school and the emerging of my last two

I thought it might be educational to send some of the chrysalises my to grandkids school. North Landing Elementary has received a total of 6; 3 to the 3rd grade and 3 to the 5th grade.
The very next day, my final two eclosed.
Here is number 3 with number 4 in the foreground.

A close up of the number 4 chrysalis.

Within 30 minutes, number 4 butterfly comes out! This series took 5 minutes.

The butterfly dried its wings for several hours and eventually dropped to the bottom of the container.

My husband Joe and I released them into our garden.
One flew away immediately. The other allowed some interaction with Joe.

This was a beautiful experience for the two of us. We await news from North Landing Elementary School!

First of the Butterflies emerge!

FINALLY! The first of the Monarch butterflies have emerged from their chrysalises. This is called "eclosing," and they came exactly 10 days from the date they pupated! Here is the first butterfly to eclose. Next to it is another chrysalis where you can see the butterfly wings.

The chrysalis turns very, very dark and you can see the butterfly inside quite clearly! Of course, I missed it eclosing.

 This is a cell phone photo of one of the newly released butterflies.

Here are the adult butterflies at night, still drying their wings and preparing for their long trip to Mexico. They were gone in the morning.

Waiting

I have moved all three containers containing the chrysalises inside. Tomorrow, 2 containers containing 3 each will be going to my grandchildren's school, North Landing Elementary. The students will be getting some "real time" science lessons! Good luck to the 6 chrysalises going to school!

Harvesting Common Milkweed Seeds

Today I harvested Common milkweed seeds for next year. The plant produces seed pods which must hold dozens of seeds.

I watched a video of how to do this.
https://youtu.be/fhjkC1Mbzlg

The video was pretty accurate. The fluff can stick to your hands though.

I only harvested 7 pods and this is the harvest, with one unopened pod on top. These seeds will now dry out for 3 days.

Teenie, tiny caterpillar

As I was cutting some milkweed leaves for the remaining caterpillars, I came across this very small larva. I guess it just recently hatched. Smallest one I have ever seen.

The cats are pupating!

This means they are going through metamorphosis. The caterpillar is going from the caterpillar stage to the chrysalis stage. The adult butterfly should emerge from the chrysalis in 10 to 14 days. There are 3 caterpillars in this stage was I write this post.

Measuring the cats

This is a photo of the biggest, plumpest caterpillar! Closing in on the 2 inch mark!

The Cats appetite is voracious!

The cats appetite is, in a word, voracious! The container with 6 went through 5+ milkweed leaves leaves today! They are fat cats! A side note: my property is flagged so the city mosquito truck will turn off their spray at my house...which they IGNORED! The City of VA Beach will be hearing from me. The cats are safe inside tonight. I just hope I got them in time.

The cats are eating.....and pooping

The container cleaning must be done everyday. As I have been trained as a wildlife rehabilitator that's not working for me so I have been cheating and doing that twice and sometimes three times a day. It's really not hard.
I have two containers with 6 in one and 3 in the other. Apparently I miscounted the cats but will add another when I can. I added a water container to the larger box and will see how that goes.
The cats are growing....like weeds and they poop a lot! I keep them outside, under some shelter but bring them in from the rain. They are inside now as we've had some storms and they are chowing down!

Out of the container during cleaning.

Container with water added.

Chowing down.

Egg laying observed and the caterpillars get a new home

My personal garden is very small, but completely dedicated to wildlife; mainly butterflies and birds. These two do come into conflict, mainly the birds preying upon the entire life cycle of the butterfly. While I strive not to interfere, I confess I did this season on behalf of the Monarch Butterfly. When I saw a female actually laying eggs on my common milkweed, I made the decision to research the species and see what I could do to help. I explored my milkweed and discovered I already had one tiny caterpillar. I cut the leaf and put it in an observation container. (I did this last year also with just one cat, with a successful release!). When an Internet friend asked if I was going to raise them, I thought why not? So, I took 10 caterpillars as I have 10 milkweed plants. These 10, I have been told, are the generation that will migrate all the way from my home in Virginia Beach, VA to Mexico! I am excited to be making these observations and am praying for a successful outcome.

Egg laying by female

I discovered the caterpillars.

I measured them.

I gave them a temporary new home.