And She’s Off! Butterfly Release

I promised yesterday that today would be the BIG DAY!! It’s time for our Monarch Butterfly that we hatched in our home, to wander out into the big world on her own! It was actually a little bit anticlimactic after all of the excitement of waiting for her to emerge. Did you catch that little word “her”? Yep, it’s a female! (Males have 2 black spots on the top side of their wings that females don’t have.)

So here is Beauty in one last picture inside her little house. (Yes, I might have named her! haha!)

I carefully opened her house, reached in and gently lifted her out and sat her among some Purple Coneflowers.

Beauty immediately opened her wings to the sun…flexed them a few times and she was off! I only had time to snap one picture of her before she flew straight up and over the top of our house and out into the big new world! Go, Beauty, go! We’re rooting for you! 🙂

Butterfly #2…called The Queen by her loyal human subjects…also took her maiden voyage this morning over in Indiana! She (yes, also a female!) spent a little more time hanging around on the Milkweed plant before venturing out on her own. Isn’t she beautiful?!

The third chrysalis I bought at the Pollinators Festival hasn’t hatched just yet. I’ll keep you updated on that one’s arrival and whether its a boy or a girl. Isn’t this interesting? We are all having so much fun with this project! You really should try it too if you get the chance! 🙂