How To Raise Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Tag

Look at a monarch we raised, tagged, and released!

You Can Watch The Whole Process On Our YouTube Channel. Make sure to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE!

Who Knew You Could Raise Caterpillars Into Butterflies?

Raising Monarchs was never even on my radar until my parents had a friend over for a visit. Their friend, Georgie, said how he had raised Monarch Butterflies for the past three decades! They would find Monarch eggs or caterpillars and raise them indoors. Over the years, they had raised and released hundreds of Monarch butterflies!
I was intrigued! We have a large garden and we also keep honeybees. Therefore, I have a natural affinity for our pollinators! The whole time Georgie is talking about milkweed, I’m envisioning our patch of milkweed that we have in our orchard. So of course, out to the orchard I go, to begin one of many caterpillar hunts in our milkweed patch. I found two caterpillars and brought them inside. I was hooked!

There Are Organizations To Help Save The Monarchs

I found a website called MonarchWatch.org ordered butterfly tags, a tee shirt, and a butterfly garden sign for my milkweed patch.
Steps we followed to raise Monarch Butterflies indoors:
1. Create little individual homes with lids that have air holes. Monarch Container
2. Fresh milkweed leaves need to be added daily.

Monarch Milkweed
3. Time. The caterpillar will shed its skin several times as it grows.  This is two day’s worth of growth and both caterpillars have shed their skin.

Monarch Baby CatMonarch Cats
4. Once the caterpillar starts hanging out on the ceiling, it’s getting ready to form its chrysalis.

Monarch Ceiling
5. It will form a “J” shape just before it sheds its skin one last time. Monarch J
6. The green chrysalis is inside of the caterpillar!

Monarch New Chrysalis
7. More time for the butterfly to develop inside of the chrysalis.

Monarch Chrysalis
8. Gently remove the chrysalis and transfer to a spot it can hang without fear of the butterflies wings touching anything after it hatches.

Chrysalis Crate
9. The chrysalis will turn clear and you will be able to see the color of butterfly’s wings.

Chrysalis Clear
10. The Monarch will need to hang as the wing dry and the butterfly fills out.

Monarch Hatch
11. You can tag the butterfly with the monarchwatch.org tags.

Monarch Tag
12. Record your data (date, gender, location, etc.) and release your butterfly on a nice day. Monarch Watch
13. Release during nice weather. Watch this short video of the whole process:

14. Repeat!  And just about when I found my last Monarch caterpillar in the orchard…I found Swallowtail caterpillars in the garden on the dill, and started the whole process again for the Swallowtails. Their food is a little more varied than the Monarchs (milkweed), they will munch on Dill, Parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Carrot Tops. Swallowtail Cat

Jason and Katy had an unexpected start to a homestead in 2014. Katy’s father didn’t want to mow the lawn anymore. Before you knew it, there were five sheep in the backyard. Jason wanted a garden, so we cleared some land. Katy wanted some chickens, so we built a coop. Follow us on our multigenerational homesteading adventures and watch how we incorporate Jason’s Quantum Reflex Analysis (holistic health) background at S. Healing Homestead.

Support your health

Support your health by becoming a Patron,  You’ll get even more in depth answers to your health questions answered directly by Jason Eagle of Strategic Healing.

Facebook Live!

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook.
Join me LIVE
1pm every Wednesday