Hello Friends, It seems that I have been neglecting my blog. My apologies. The reason why is incredible. Let's start with last season...I only found 50 monarch eggs in my garden the Whole season (may-Sept). I think back and I only saw about 3 monarchs the whole season. As you can imagine it was depressing.
This year is so much better! I have seen butterflies in my garden almost every day, for weeks! I started collecting eggs in the third week of May and also got a few cats. (caterpillars) from my friend Bob. Since then I have had many batches of caterpillars. I have, as of last night, collected 1153! However as of today I have releases only 211 healthy butterflies. I had A lot of cat. deaths early on and a few diseased butterflies that I had to euthanize. Very sad, I know, but in practical terms if the butterfly is diseased it may spread the disease to others. I do have about 300 cats in play right now so this may help my survival ratio. 
I will write more tonight I promise- I really need to go clean all the cat. containers and aquariums right now. 

 Eggs start off in plastic containers to keep the leaves alive while the egg develops. Once they hatch, they should be given a new leave to feed on because the old one will get moldy, dry out or get consumed.

 These Chrysalids are all hatched now, part of the big batch of 25 on Monday.

 They make their chrysalis in maddening places sometimes

This is what it is all about, releasing healthy monarchs for the migration

Happy Spring! Or what there is of it. I have not begun cleaning my garden yet, for fear that the cold will kill my perennials. So my spring bulb show is not so pretty this year. I am getting very excited about the monarch butterfly season coming up. I have been hoping and praying that the weather in the southern states has been good enough to give them the population the boost that they need to make this summer really count.
So far the weather has been ok, No tornadoes (or very few), no Texas wildfires, floods or drought....Even though this spring has been very cold, the weather has been mild.

So in the spirit of getting ready for our little friends coming back this spring, I am giving a Butterfly Gardening Workshop tomorrow (April 28)  T at Moraine Valley CC. 6:30-9, $15, you can register by phone! (708) 974-4300. 9000 W College Pkwy, Palos Hills, IL 60465 Easy! Peasy! I will be covering Butterfly Gardening, Monarch Conservation and raising caterpillars at home.

Below are a few photos of a newly designed caterpillar house that a new friend of mine made. It was not hard to build at all! 

Winter fatigue is settling in

Well, friends we are 17 days out from the First Day of Spring. I capitalize it because for me, it is akin to a National Holiday! In Chicago (and elsewhere) this winter has been long, been dark and way more snowy and bitter cold than normal. I neglected getting my caterpillar house into the garage for most of the winter, so time will tell if my 55 black swallowtail b-flies will hatch or not. The photo on the left is from Jan. 5th, the date of the first polar vortex. I am hoping the snow insulated the house enough. All I can do now is wait.  
My hope is that the sheer force of the Earth tilting will force Mother Nature to turn of the snow faucet!
I am also getting very excited for this summer's monarch season. I have been editing last years' photos and I can't wait to see my little friends again! 
One thing that has been keeping me going this winter is giving lectures on creating butterfly gardens and raising monarchs at home. I really love giving these lectures and hopefully to inspire one or two people to raise butterflies. I had my first inquiry after the Porter Co. Flower show. These two lovely ladies are so excited that they wanted to come by in February and "see my operation". Hahahaha, well is it a very small operation but I am hoping for more caterpillars this year. I am looking forward to coaching them when they need it.
I am so very excited about getting permission to register two sites at work as Monarch Waystations! I just got the clearance from the boss, Thanks! Those registrations will got through in the next three weeks. 
What does Monarch Waystation mean, you ask?  You can register your butterfly garden as a Monarch Waystation with the organization Monarchwatch.org. The criteria is simple, have a garden of a certain size, have nectaring plants, 2 or more species of milkweed, protection from wind and rain and voila! Your butterfly garden is a registered habitat.  

I know, I know, the news all over the country has been reporting the sad news of the smallest number of Monarchs to overwinter in Mexico. California has also reported lower than normal numbers of their migrating populations. The one thing I cling to is that we (humans) have only been monitoring these overwintering sites for about 20 years and the migration is probably about 10,000 years old. So as bleak as is looks, there could be improvement if our weather goes back to what we call normal. The most critical piece to the puzzle, this year, will be the spring weather in Texas. All the Monarchs in Mexico have begun mating and they will soon move on to their spring egg laying sites in southern Texas. If we have an upset in the weather as in 2012 and 2013, the Monarchs may be headed for an irreversible disaster to their populations. So please pay attention to the weather forecasts for Texas. 

Brrrrrr July in Chicago

Well then, temps have not improved yet, this week! So the cat house remains indoors with the heat lamp on it. The cats. are eating and growing like crazy! In fact, they are running out of food. Tonight I will transfer them from the carrot plants inside the cat. house to another container of carrots. Then back into the cat house with the heat lamp on them. Just in case you missed my previous post, these are black swallowtail butterfly cats. They grow a little slower than monarchs and they eat most plants in the carrot/ parsley family. There are a few chrysalis already! Since it is a little late in the season, most of these chrysalis will not hatch until next May or June. There are a lot of butterflies that do this. Half of the brood will hatch 2 weeks after making the chrysalis is made. The rest of them overwinter. In my case, they will overwinter in the cat. house in my garage.

Imagine my shock (and my butterfly friends') when we realized that those chrysalis  were not going to hatch! I was very nervous! Would they overwinter ok? Would the freezing process damage them?  This revelation all happened 2 falls ago. Last spring on the second or third 80 degree+ day, I moved the cat. house out of the  garage and onto the sunny patio. Checking in on them every day, I noticed that the chrysalis' softened up and starred wiggling!  I thought they were going to fall off the inside of the cat. house frame! They all hatched about a week later.

On to the monarchs! I am happy to report that all 25 of my eggs hatched! Since one of the mamma monarchs laid her eggs on a perfectly dreadful looking swamp milkweed, I transferred them all to new tropical milkweed plants. As I was doing this, I came across one egg that looked like it was going to hatch any minute. So I put it on my kitchen counter in a sunny spot and checked on it while I was transferring the others. How did I Know that it was about to hatch?? As you can see in the photo below, there is a black spot on the top of the egg. Pay no attention to the two blemishes on the leaf. There is the reason why I transfer the cats. to new plants. Imagine how big those spots would be to a tiny cat.? I don't know what caused those spots, but a delicate cat. like a monarch shouldn't ingest it. It would be the equivalent of a human eating a giant four foot wide rotten pizza or the like.  

I finally got the Last shot of the monarch life cycle that I have been missing for four years. When a cat. hatches from it's egg, the first meal it eats is egg shell, an excellent source of protein! Mom always said eat your eggs! (I miss eggs) Anyhoo, below is the shot I got! I was very excited~ and instantly regretted not dragging out my tripod! When I was done, I was hot, dripping with sweat and had only a few shots that were fully in focus. So glad I finally have it.

First Post of 2013, this late?

Yes it is true, this is my first post and it is July 28!  That is mostly due to the fact that I just started collecting cats. last week.  This has not been a problem just for me, everyone that I know who raises cats, all across the Midwest region, is having trouble. This is frustrating because we all want to help increase the butterfly populations. In fact  all summer, people have been talking about the distinct lack of butterflies. Unfortunately ,  I have no answers for you. I have seen very few myself. This does not mean that this is a permanent situation. Like all insects, they have ups and downs, so don't count them out yet. The monarchs, however are having the toughest time of it. Which is why I raise them. Since only one of every 10 eggs makes to the b-fly stage, raising them makes sense. 
I started finding black swallowtails (bsw) about 10 days ago. I was home sick for a couple of days and was dozing on the couch. From there I can see my deck flower boxes. I watched a large female lay eggs on my container of dill, carrots and parsley. Over 5 days I found about 35. Into the cat. house they went on a container of carrot plants. Then the weather changed... and got cold resulting in cold cats. I put one in my hand and it felt like a piece of ice! The over night temps were going to drop, last night, into the high 50's so into the living room the cat house went. This morning they were still really cold and not feeding. So Lee said they needed a heat lamp. He fixed me up with a utility light and a 100 watt light bulb.  And that is where they are tonight. 
I love watching butterflies lay eggs. They seem to float effortlessly from leaf to leaf. Then they dart away to look for another suitable plant, rarely revisiting any plant twice. It is really a beautiful thing to watch. When that mamma bsw was laying eggs on the deck planters, she flew right up in front of the window and when I came outside, she was not startled at all. Just continued her job.....
As for the monarchs, I have been so depressed, all summer, looking for eggs and finding none. I had pretty much given up until this week. Four days ago I just happened to pass by a fresh sprout of common milkweed and noticed One egg. I have always said to myself, "If there is one, there is 10." Know how many I collected? Exactly 10.  So, a good start. The next day 10 more....By this morning 3 cats had hatched. In the mean time...
Two weeks ago I had "borrowed" 5 monarch cats from my friend Bob. 
Yesterday they began hatching and with the cold overnight temps I felt they should stay inside until tomorrow. They are in an aquarium with a little "butterfly take-out". The weather will be warmed up a by tomorrow and I will release them. 
In conclusion, it has been a slow start, but I am sticking with it. More updates coming soon....

99 in the Shade

I am up to 99 Monarchs as of today! Despite my expectations that this would be a much better season, I think I have had more healthy butterflies and fewer caterpillar deaths. So low number- yes, disappointing- yes, better results -YES! 

One of the males released last week has staked out the garden- yet again, in hopes to attract a girlfriend. so I am expecting eggs this week.  

On Sunday I was out in the garden and 2 monarchs flew past me mating! Sorry. they flew away before I could get a shot but I included last year's photo

I have a few pix for you today.  

awe butterfly love!

cats. from the plastic container to the aquarium, next stop the garden!

cats. in the plastic containers that they start out in as eggs, they are ready to move now, 

Number 99!

hmmm where's  lunch? 

Slowly but Surely

Well it is the second week of August and I should be swimming in caterpillars and cat. eggs. And caterpillar poop ;) To say this has been a dry season is an understatement. I have in total collected just about 125 eggs and cats for the whole summer. I have been raising cats. in small batches. All in all that has been easier. Albeit very disappointing. I have had 3 male monarchs stake out my garden as territory for mating but no females have found them. There is one here now and I am hoping that one of the 4 females I released this weekend will come back. In an effort to "remind" the ladies that this is a safe haven for caterpillars, I take the butterflies outside and the first plant they touch is my tropical milkweed. I have no scientific basis for my theory that if they touch the mw first they will come back here to lay eggs, but I figure that it won't hurt my chances.
Last week at work I had some luck collecting. We moved a number of small butterfly container gardens from one facility to another (thanks to my #1 assistant Josh and Mike for taking such good care of the flowers!) due to an upcoming construction project. 24 hours later I was at the pool watering the containers and low and behold who comes floating in? A monarch, of course, but it was a male. "Whatever", I said to myself. I kept on watering and it flew off and then back again only this time it was female and she began laying eggs. So I began following her and collecting. At one point she flew up in front of me and fluttered in front of my face for a moment and then went to the nearest mw and began laying eggs again. This is not the first time this has happened to me. I always feel as thought they know what I am doing and know their progeny will be safe. I am not the only butterfly gardener this has happened too. I know others who have observed this phenom. Keep in mind that these containers were out on a patio all summer that was rarely visited by people and butterflies, apparently. We moved them and boom. When I returned to the same container gardens 3 days later I found 2 cats. that I missed before and began watering...about an hour into it a terribly faded monarch floated into the area and chose one planter and laid many eggs there for me to find. I collected a few, she flew off, I would go back to watering, she would come back, then I would collect a few more, she flew off. This went on for over and hour and every time I went in to collect she'd fly off, when I was finished she'd come back. Pretty cool, huh?