Hungry, Hungry Caterpillars

 The view from inside one of the habitats here at the Monarch Cafe.

Currently there are 9 habitats.  We have more caterpillars than we've been able to count. I would guess we've easily got 160 caterpillars ranging from 1/4 inch to full grown.  Keeping up with feeding them had become a full time job.

And for the update, we've released 46 butterflies, have 34 chrysalis, 5 caterpillars in the "j" formation in preparation for becoming chrysalis and all of the above mentioned caterpillars.

Watch out world, the Monarch Cafe is increasingly the #MonarchButterfly population.

New Territory

We have crossed into new territory. Our record had been releasing 38 butterflies. So far this year we have now released 44 butterflies.

If that's not noteworthy enough we also have 22 chrysalis, 112 counted caterpillars and at least a couple dozen still too small to count.

Talk about a lot of eating going on at the Monarch Cafe!

If You Grow It

I'm sure you remember the saying from the movies "If you build it, they will come". Well we discovered if you grow it (#milkweed), they (#MonarchButterfly) will come and lay their eggs.

Every day we go out to check on the plants or just to get cuttings to feed the caterpillars, we're finding a dozen or more newly hatched caterpillars.

As for our statistics, nothing has changed. Still 37 butterflies released 9 chrysalis, 20 stage 3 to stage 5 caterpillars, and uncounted dozens of stage 1 to stage 2 caterpillars. We have more habits on the way and should be able to attempt a count after they arrive and we start spreading the little caterpillars out into the new habitats.

Habitats

Due to the number of predators in the "wild" such as the tacid fly which killed nearly a third of last year's caterpillars, we bring the caterpillars inside and place them in large "gerbil habits".

The lid of the habitats have a piece of plastic canvas covering it.  The caterpillars are able to hang on and spin their chrysalis on the lid this way. Or we attach their branch of choice to the lid with twist ties after the chrysalis is formed.

Then when all the caterpillars have transitioned, the bottom is cleand out disposing of the leaves and paper towel is laid across it for easy cleanup of the fluids from the emerging butterflies.

If it appears some of the butterflies are going to emerge while there are still caterpillars in the bottom, the caterpillars are moved to a different habit.  There's a bacterial disease that could be passed on through the fluid, so you don't want caterpillars under an emerging butterfly.

Finally a quick update: we have released 37 butterflies, lost one in the chrysalis stage, 9 chrysalis, and dozens of caterpillars with new one hatching every day.

Flight of the Butterfly

And more butterflies...

After a brief break yesterday we are back to releasing #MonarchButterfly.

Today we had another 5 #MonarchButterfly emerge.  And while that was going on, we also had 5 caterpillars go into the chrysalis.

And the totals: we've now had 29 butterflies emerge.  This leaves 10 chrysalis plus the five new ones, 3 big caterpillars and approximately 17 baby caterpillars.

Weekend Butterflies

We released 3 more #MonarchButterfly this weekend, bring the total for this year up to 22.

This leaves us with 15 chrysalis plus the new one formed today. As well as 8 stage 4 and stage 5 caterpillars and 17 (if I found everyone) stage 1 caterpillars. We also have an unknown quantity of eggs throughout the cafe.

A Five Butterfly Day

Its a good thing the rain has moved past as today five new butterflies decided to emerge.
This brings our Monarch Cafe total to 21 butterflies released  (as soon as these are ready to fly) in 2016.

Butterflies Release Begins

Today started the butterfly release stage.

3 butterflies were placed outside on the Zinnias and then flew off.

This brings us to 16 butterflies released, 21 chrysalis, 7 caterpillars over a quarter inch long and an indeterminate number of eggs and newly hatched caterpillars.

Baby Caterpillars

Just as most of our caterpillars have moved to the chrysalis stage, a round of eggs has hatched.  Currently we have discovered 8 baby caterpillars.

So if you're wondering about the numbers, we have 22 chrysalis and 11 caterpillars.  

Mid to late this week, we expect to watch butterflies  emerging again. Which is of course the fun part.

Surprise

So I  was in the cafe checking on the progress of the eggs when I looked up and surprise there's an almost fully grown caterpillar I had apparently missed seeing for its entire life cycle.

And if that wasn't enough, I  found two more decent sized caterpillars. Though each of them were a bit smaller.

We did also have 5 eggs hatch that I found. And after the way the rest of my hunt went i wouldn't be at all surprised if there weren't a few more that we just haven't found yet.

So if you're wondering about numbers, we now have 11 chrysalis, 1 egg, and 19 caterpillars plus whatever is hidden in the cafe.

Stages of the Life Cycle

Currently its quite busy at the Monarch Cafe.  We have 14 caterpillars at several stages including the pre-chrysalis "J" hang shown to the left.

Down to the littlest one measuring in at about half an inch.  Most are an inch or less in length today.  Though  we do have a couple who are close to moving into the chrysalis.

Across the last few days we've also had 8 chrysalis form. So around the middle of next week we should once again be releasing butterflies.

As if all of this isn't enough excitement, we've also discovered five eggs. And considering their size and the fact they're laid on the under side of the leaves, there could be even more we haven't seen yet.  So things may not be slowing down any time soon.