Herbert has hatched!

 Herbert the Caterpillar has hatched.  We found this teeny tiny egg a few days ago.....

now Herbert the Monarch catterpillar has arrived!

The life cycle is moving forward

To quote a very excited 5 year old,"Caddie the caterpillar has crystalized!!!"

Caddie the Caterpillar

Gracie caught us Caddie the Black Swallowtail caterpillar this afternoon on the Queen Ann's Lace flowers along the "rocky road".

We can't wait until you make your "big change" Caddie!!!

We will keep you updated on Caddie's progress.

Monarch Photo Essay

On day 37 of Alex the Great's lifecycle, we knew that hatching time was drawing near,

his crysalis was beginning to become translucent,

as opposed to the nice rich green he was a few days ago.

This morning the crysalis was completely see through. It was time for the big event.

If you want to see the actual hatching, you can watch the video here.

He then hung upside down for quite a while, as the extra fluid from his body pumped into his wings.

We got him onto a stick as he filled his wings and began to dry. This took a couple hours.
It was also real neat to watch him stretch out his proboscus. This is his mouth part that sucks up flower nectar.
We had to leave for church, and I expected to find him flying around the house when we arrived home and an hour and a half later, but he was still drying on his stick.

I think he was waiting for Mark to show him the great big outside world.

Gracie's caterpillar, Anjolina, hatched yesterday morning. Anjolina was also raised at home from an egg. Gracie was very brave this year while she carried Anjolina outside.....


much braver than she was last year during hatching season.
You can tell that Anjolina is a girl
and Alex the Great is a boy because

of the two black wing spots on the underwings of a male monarch. (This was very lucky, since the kids named them from the time they hatched.)

Mark was very proud to take Alex the Great outside to be released. Alex the Great was very happy to pose for a few minutes so that everyone could say goodbye.

And then, up, up, up he flew. We spotted him for the last time at the tippy top of a tree in the field next to our yard.

Have a happy life Alex, we wish you good luck. We hope you will migrate to Mexico and then come back again next year.

Monarch Success

From a hatchling....

To a fat caterpillar....

To chrysalis...

Today Alex the Great made his adult entrance into the world.

You can watch Alex hatch on the video in the previous post.

Day-38 The Big Event

Alex the Great-life cycle-day 31

After a few days under the kitchen table, Daddy got Alex the Great situated into a new home-for safety reasons.--Under the kitchen table just wasn't safe. He is now on a smaller piece of foam board inside a 2 liter soda bottle with the top cut off. (This soda bottle technique is how we always raise our caterpillars.)
He is nice and bright green, and I love the little golden spots on his charysalis. We know he is healthy because of the nice green color. We have had charysalis' die before, and they, at first turn dull, and then brownish in color.
I do need to show you Gracie's charysalis, Anjolina. She has also been a charysalis for 3 days and is doing just fine.

I won't bore you anymore with these again until the BIG metamorphysis has taken place and we present to you our beautiful butterflies--barring any unforeseen accidents that happen sometimes in a family with so many little children.

Alex the Great-caterpillar-day-28

This morning, we discovered that Gracie's caterpillar, Anjolina, had turned into a very pretty, respecticle, ladylike chrysalis. She is two days younger than Alex the Great, but seems to be doing what she is supposed to do.

But as I told you yesterday, we thought Alex the Great may had met his demise when we found him under the kitchen table. His container had fallen off the table, and we soon found him clinging to a piece of foam poster board that was leaning up against the wall, behind the table bench.
Not a very safe spot, especially since 12 people cram around this table every day to eat. He also looked a little strange after his escape ordeal.
Here he is. Danger! Danger! Danger!
Laura posted a plea to the family to remember that he is down here.
This morning I decided he was dead, so I told the kids we would remove him from the house this afternoon. Literally minutes later, one of the kids called to everyone, "He is changing!!"

If you have never seen the actual moment a caterpillar turns into a charysalis, it is, well, gross. His skin splits and he wriths around for at least ten minutes, as his green skin kind of sheds again, revealing the final home, where a metamorphisis is about to begin.

Alex the Great is all his beautiful green glory.

Day-27 - A Big Change Coming Soon

We took wonderful care of Alex the Great for the past 27 days, but lo, this morning, his container was tipped over and we found him under the kitchen table. I don't know if he will make it, he is, kind of, in a j shape (the precursor for a chrysalis) so now we will try to protect him under the table.

Gracie's caterpillar, Anjolina, is two days younger than Alex the Great, but she has also "made a j" today! Hopefully we will get a butterfly!

Caterpillar-Update

What a difference 17 days make....

Alex the Great-day1

Alex the Great-Day 18

He's a whopper now!

An eating machine!!

It won't be long now until we have a chrysalis!

Alex the Great-Day 16

Caterpillar update:

Alex the Great has certainly been on a growth spurt the last few days.

You can visit him here as an egg and newborn.

Visit him at days 4 and 6.

Day-9 Alex the Great is measuring 1/2 inch.
Amazingly- 4 days later- day 13 a whopping 1 inch in length.
The pencil hardly looks big anymore.

According to this very good website-Alex the Great is halfway there to becoming an adult butterfly.

Growing Caterpillars-days 4 and 6

The beginning of our caterpillar's life(Alex the Great) begins in this post.

Day 4

-amazing compared to day 2-notice the big black eyes-and much more distinctive coloring

Day6-
the big black eyes have changed-significantly-and notice hove much bigger the little pokey up black things are, after only 2 more days

I posted the first two photos and then realized as I was looking at them that you couldn't tell how small the caterpilllar still is. Alex the Great is on the upper right hand part of this milkweek leaf.

3/8 of an inch at day-6

We have caterpillar hatchlings...

Laura found two Monarch eggs on the same milkweed leaf this past Sunday at Grandma H's house. This photo is last years egg, but they sure look the same year to year.

I tried to make the size known by the comparison to the veins in the leaf.

You can see this year's hatchling above. It is the tiny black speck at the top right of the leaf.
Hatchling between a few minutes and two hours old. Mark named him Alexander the Great.
Two days old, and at least three times the size of the 2 hour hatchling.

I hope to get pictures every two days because it just amazing me how fast these little critters grow.