FinallyStanding room only at the "cat house"!

After my first children (BSTs), it was a long dry spell and I thought things were over for the year and then a bunch (is there a word for a bunch of butterflies? like covey, pride, herd???) showed up. I had 42 Monarch cats in the cathouse. This pic is from two days ago and by this afternoon I had 7 crysalis hanging around. I was rapidly running out of milkweed but I got lucky and one of the local nurseries had some in one gallon containers. Nice healthy looking plants so I bought the nine plants they had on hand. And yes, it was the most expensive nursery around, but the babies had to have food. And what do I find on one of the new plants?? Two Queen cats about 3/4 of an inch long, and more eggs. Three more have hatched since then. Can I mix the queens in with the Monarchs or should I keep them by themselves??

I have not been posting much, but I have been reading all the words of wisdom in this forum since day one. Thanks to all who have posted. After reading everything, I feel like I at least halfway know what I'm doing. One more question--with 42 cats, how many butterflies will I end up with? Is there a "survival rate", like 95%, or 80%, or even better 100%?? Ed

Woah!!!!! There's a ton of cats there.
Good luck and congrats.
that looks like you're going to have a lot of fun when they all emerge from their chrysilis (?)
thanks for sharing that pic.

Wow Ed, looking great, I love to see nurseries like that!

I'm hoping you have 100% eclose healthy there!

Ed, To answer your question I did have Monarchs and Queens together in the same cage. However, the Monarchs had all but very few made it to the chrysalis stage. And the Queens were pretty much babies. I did have some Queens in the chrysalis stage and Monarchs at the same time. The Monarchs all came out way ahead of the Queens though so I cannot say they were every really truly living closely together. But I had no problems and I can proudly say I had 100% success with both species. I am thrilled to death about that because I was not so lucky with my gulf frits. But I feel way more confident now about raising these sweeties. I let my last Queen go free yesterday and I have to say it is a little lonely not having those guys to check on every day. I am afraid it will be a long winter waiting for the chance to raise more BF's next year. Good luck with yours. Just seeing that pic made me nostalgic. LOL.

Leslie