A few months ago, Jaime on Steady Mom posted some photos of her kids releasing butterflies. I was inspired, since Emma (well all three of my girls) love butterflies, but we rarely see them these days. What’s up with that, my friends? I am so sad about the disappearing butterflies. I remember so many more butterflies as a kid — now we are lucky to see one or two a day, only mid-summer, and often less. Boo!
Butterfly Hatching Day
Painted Lady butterflies, newly hatched!
Butterfly wonder
Butterflies hatched and wings drying
Emma was SO EXCITED about this whole process, loved watching the caterpillars fatten up (they grow fast!) and then the excitement of waking up and finding chrysalides one day. After that we transfered them to their larger cage, and waited…..until a week later, when they hatched! One of them didn’t come out right and that was a good, but hard, learning lesson, but the other four did and it was SO VERY EXCITING! After a few days of watching and feeding our butterflies, we said goodbye and released them (during a rare afternoon sunbreak last week!), and are keeping our eyes peeled for them or their offspring….
Butterflies on release day
Delia and Mama checking out the butterflies
Handing off a butterfly
Emma releasing the first butterfly
Delia's butterfly
Elsie's butterfly
Delia the butterfly. Flap flap flap!
All in all, it was an excellent project, and one we will definitely be doing again next year!
This post was part of the Moms 30-Minute Blog Challenge over on Steady Mom.
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My son’s preschool released butterflies this year. It was fascinating to me how fast the caterpillars went from tiny to HUGE. I think it was more interesting to me than him, but I think this is something that we might try next year.
Those photographs are amazing!!! What a fabulous project!!!
my sister has done this several times, she grows specific bushes they are attracted to and then moves a crysalis into the house so they can watch it grow.
I had a friend who did it and thought it was gross.
Hi There! Just came over to thank you for stopping by my blog earlier, and was delighted by this post and the beautiful photographs. Your girls are adorable. I especially like the photo of Elsie’s butterfly – her wonder and amazement is almost tangible!
Ah! I was thinking of getting one of these, either for my niece or for us. I still want to, but I was worried they might not deliver the caterpillars to hot places (not ours!) in the summer, so I think I’ll hold off on sending one to my niece till autumn. I was also thinking of having the kit sent to myself and trying to time the caterpillar ordering and the kit arrival to coincide, so there’s less waiting. I’m impressed your caterpillars didn’t take too long, at least!
Beautiful photos! I love the ones with the girls peering in at the butterflies.
Thanks everyone! It was a really fun project!
Lauren — one thing to keep in mind is that the butterflies can’t be released outdoors unless daytime temps are above 55 degrees — so too late in the fall would be a bummer for that! Also, you need the kit in hand to order the butterflies (you get a code and only pay shipping for your first order, I think?). Lots more info here:
http://www.insectlore.com/xinsectucational_stuff/instructions/garden.html
We will definitely do them again, next spring! I’ve heard some folks have seem them around all summer (they hang around and reproduce if the conditions are right) which would be SOOOOO cool. So far, we have not spotted ours, though, boo!