Another successful morning in the butterfly house with three new beauties, two males and one female monarch butterfly emerging from their chrysalis.
There is such a calmness that washes over me when I watch these butterflies enter the world, climbing onto my fingers and taking its first flight after their wings are dry.
This morning as I was cleaning out our butterfly house and replacing some of the plants for the caterpillars within, I heard a small cracking noise and looked up to see a monarch butterfly slowly emerging from its chrysalis. It is such a spectacular sight to watch, especially knowing how the life of the butterfly began.
It emerges by splitting the now translucent chrysalis along the length of the proboscis near its head. The monarch then slowly moves its legs out, holding on while removing the rest of its body. The body is swollen with fluid when it first emerges. The monarch will begin pumping fluid from its body to the veins of its extremely soft wings. According to “Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies” the wings expand by the pressure of the fluids moving through the veins on its wings. Once completed, the body shrinks to a normal size. The monarch then hangs upside down, we have seen for more than two hours at times, drying, hardening, its wings before it’s ready to take its first flight.
Today we had six successful hatches in our butterfly house, all of which emerged before 10 a.m. Once they began flying around the butterfly house we released them into our butterfly garden. Some flew to the branches of trees, while others flew to areas where they could sit longer.
For more information about monarch butterflies: visit my page: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/monarch-butterfly/?frame-nonce=337ab32fc1
Almost a year ago my husband built my daughter and I a butterfly house, which has transformed in shape and size. Our house is positioned on our porch, giving us a great view from our family room to watch.
We started putting milkweed plants in the butterfly house, so we could witness the various stages of the caterpillar. I can still remember when my daughter saw a chrysalis being made. The excitement that bubbled over . . . mesmerized.
We have seen the life cycle of six species of butterflies so far.
On May 3, 2022, three years since we started the butterfly garden, I released six monarch butterflies into our garden that we successfully raised. Those six released were numbers 99-104.
I still cannot put into words how special and magical it is to have a butterfly sit on your hand waiting to take its first flight.
For more information about monarch butterflies: visit my page: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/monarch-butterfly/?frame-nonce=337ab32fc1