Waiting for Change

 

Getting Bigger

 

A New Season

 

After years of being closed, the cafe currently has 8 baby caterpillars in residence. 

Video Links

Missing the #MonarchButterfly already?  Here are some links to video footage to get your "fix".

• Caterpillar eating butterfly weed milkweed.
• Caterpillar forming chrysalis.
• Butterfly emerging from the chrysalis.
• Butterfly drying its wings. 
• Male Butterfly on flowers.
• Butterfly playing with Koala Joey (from Symbio Wildlife Park)

Enjoy!

Talking About the Experience

I will be in St. Joseph, Missouri on Thursday, October 20, 2016 at the Missourians for Monarchs meeting to talk about my experiences raising #MonarchButterfly.

The meeting is at 6:30 at the Missouri Department of Conservation offices. 

Not going to be in St. Joseph?  Can't make the meeting?  Check out the PowerPoint.

Then join us again next year when the migration of the #MonarchButterfly returns to the Monarch Cafe.

Final Butterflies

Our last #MonarchButterfly of the year have emerged as large quantities of have migrated as far as Texas.

The five butterflies bring the Monarch Cafe total to 344 #MonarchButterfly for 2016.

It's been a good year to be a #MonarchButterfly at the Monarch Cafe.

We're going to be in the Saint Joseph MO area on October 20th to talk about raising #MonarchButterfly at the Missourians for Monarchs meeting. Come join us, 6:30 at the Conservation Department.

The Season is Wraping Up

 The season is wraping up as the weather is getting cooler.

So far the Monarch Cafe has successfully released 336 #MonarchButterfly.

We have 11 chrysalis left. The last of our caterpillars caught "black death" so when the butterflies emerge from the chrysalis the season is over at the Monarch Cafe.

All in all its been a banner year for us.

And to finish off the season, we will be in Saint Joseph, MO to speak at their #Missouri4Monarchs meeting on October 20th.  The topic is the experience of raising/rearing #MonarchButterfly.  If you're also going to be in the area come join us.

300

300 #MonarchButterfly have now emerged and flown away from the Monarch Cafe.

This is more than we ever imagined when we planted all the #milkweed last spring, hoping to increase our numbers over last year's 38.

Invite a #MonarchButterfly to lunch, plant #milkweed.

Sharing the Experience

This weekend the Monarch Cafe butterflies went on a road trip to visit my favorite preteens.

And my niece  (who's remaining anonymous) got a chance to help with the butterfly release.  Nothing like sharing the experience to get another generation hooked on building the #MonarchButterfly population.

We are now at 282 #MonarchButterfly released a few dozen chrysalis and a couple dozen caterpillars. (Unfortunately lately we've had a rash of unsuccessful emergences.)

200th Monarch

And so we've had a hectic #MonarchButterfly season this week and are now up to 235 #MonarchButterfly.  Pictured to the left is the 200th #MonarchButterfly to emerge from the Monarch Cafe this year.  He emerged yesterday, today we have had 35 more.

Where does this leave us? Around 100 chrysalis and approximately a dozen caterpillars.

29 Butterflies and 9 Inches of Rain

What happens when you pair a thunderstorm lasting all day and into the next morning producing around 9 inches of rain with 29 #MonarchButterfly emerging?
An impromptu aviary.

That's what happened yesterday.  So we cut an overgrown asparagus and tied it to the shower rod with netting across the front of the tub then we relocated the #MonarchButterfly from the habitats onto the asparagus.

Then today after it finally stopped raining we relocated them to a box and carried them outside where we released them to fly away.  Along with the 24 #MonarchButterfly that emerged today.

Wherr does that leave us? 151 butterflies released, a bunch of chrysalis and a few caterpillars.

98th Monarch Released

With the release of 14 #MonarchButterfly today, we have now successfully watched 98 #MonarchButterfly fly away from the Monarch Cafe.

Tomorrow we will cross over into the triple digit releases.

77th Butterfly

A picture of the 77th #MonarchButterfly released from the Monarch Cafe. She was released yesterday.  Today we've already released 1 and have 5 more drying their wings.  We could potentially have 2 more emerge today.

And for the update we have released 78 #MonarchButterfly so far, we have 5 butterflies drying their wings, 241 chrysalis, 4 caterpillars in the "j" formation and a few  dozen caterpillars with the smallest ones just recently hatched.

Releasing a Butterfly

When we release a #MonarchButterfly, typically a finger is placed into the container in the area between the butterfly's feet in the hopes it will climb on for easy removal from the habitat.

We do not try to pick the butterfly up using the wings as that can potentially mess up their ability to fly.  If we can't get the butterfly to climb on, we might grab their feet.  This usually irritates the butterfly causing them to frantically flap their wings.
Typically just placing the finger in the proximity of the butterfly's feet is enough to get him to climb on and then be able to lift the butterfly out of the habitat.

And for the update, we have released 64 #MonarchButterfly, have 218 chrysalis and still quite a few caterpillars (an updated count has not been do e recently).

And 4 Butterflies Make 61

Today  we released another four #MonarchButterfly.  This brings us to 61 butterflies so far this year.

At last count we had 115 chrysalis and at least that many caterpillars.

Transition

Gradually  more and more of our caterpillars are making the transition to the chrysalis.

We have now released 54 butterflies with three more drying their wings as I type.  At las count there were 84 chrysalis many caterpillars in the "j" formation and still possibly as many as 100 caterpillars still eating.

Not bad considering the success rate is typically noted as 5% of course that's "in the wild" and not our special Monarch Cafe habitat "hotels".

Rough Day

 It's been a rough day at the Monarch Cafe.  We got a taste of what we've been trying to avoid by getting the caterpillars inside as soon as possible.  Apparently a few caterpillars we overlooked were attacked by the tachinid fly (last year we lost close to half this way).  Losing 5 caterpillars as they were preparing to go into the chrysalis was traumatic.

The caterpillar pictured to the left was one of these.  The strings hanging down are how you recognize that the fly larvae have exited the caterpillar.

On a more positive note, we have now released 48 butterflies and have 63 chrysalis with several more caterpillars scoping out the roofs of their habitat.  And of course there's easily 100 more caterpillars still eating.

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.