Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: first-time raising monarch cats, 0 by catbird8

catbird8 wrote:
Junebug,

Catbird8 and I have raised iterally hundreds of monarchs. Short bit of advice - make sure you have a really big stock of milkweed on hand. Especially later in the year, when the migrating flock goes through. Repeating earlier advice, keep a lot in pots. The common milkweed is easy to grow from cuttings - put a handful in a glass of water and watch for root sprouts. Transplant. Same with seeds, except they take longer to mature. Leave the eggs on a live plant or cut off the leaf the eggs are on and pin it to a live leaf on a potted plant. No substitute like bringing them inside for protection. Be prepared for when they go "walk-about" looking for a place to "J-up". They can roam a long way looking for just the right texture. Stick some dry twigs in the pot for them to investigate. The particularly like the casement area of our kitchen window. Takes a little over two weeks for the larvae to mature, a couple of days in the "J-up" position before becoming a chrysalis, then 10 - 12 days before emergence. The monarch takes a long time to dry its wings. Several hours. Watch for it to expel excess fluid. At first it will expel a rust colored liquid. Then clear liquid. This will indicate that the wings are fully "pumped". At that time we generally extend a finger for them to climb on and take them to a nearby plant to finish the process. We have a wicker basket on the outside by the back door that works real well. They also like to rest on pine or bottletree limbs. Hope this helps. You will learn more with each year. But, the hardest part is anticipating just how much they eat in the larval stage.

Good luck,

Rod (mate of 8)