Butterfly Farming.

Earlier this year we planted a couple of small swan plants, also called milkweed. We don't have a garden but there are large gardens all around us and lots of Monarch butterflies in the neighbourhood so I knew we would get a few butterflies on our plants. We got lots of eggs and the baby caterpillars hatched but they started to get eaten by wasps so I intervened and we would bring the caterpillars inside and feed them leaves everyday.

This was actually a bonus for the girls because we could closely watch the transformation of the caterpillar into a chrysalis and then a Monarch butterfly.

Once they hatched and seemed dry enough to survive we put the butterflies outside and watched them fly away.

In total we hatched 4 girls and one boy butterfly. We didn't have enough food left to sustain any more. Maybe next year we will be more successful. I shot a little video of the chrysalis being made with the wriggling caterpillar inside.