Our first monarch release day was very hectic! Late last night, five monarchs had emerged, and had been placed on the livingroom curtain for the night. By 6:00 AM today, another seven had emerged from their chrysalides! Releasing a DOZEN monarchs and keeping up with the summer school morning rush for both Monarch Girls AND their mom was quite a feat!
It began with little brother 'Junebug' discovering the monarchs the moment he woke up, and Mom calling to the Monarch Girls to quickly get up to release the monarchs before the sunrise really got the butterflies moving from the curtain. We didn't want them flying all over the house or getting caught in lights, ceiling fans, etc!
After carefully moving the five monarchs from the curtain to the screen door, the cage containing the other seven butterflies was opened. Several of the butterflies fluttered to the screen on their own, eager to be on their own. Others were helped along until all 12 were clinging to the screen, opening and closing their wings to prepare for that flight into freedom. It was decided that each child would release butterflies from flowers rather than having them hold onto the butterflies. Three year old brothers holding on to butterflies can be a little scary for the butterflies!
Finally, three children each held a flower in one hand with a monarch perched on it, and the screen door was pushed open. A few of the monarchs on the screen door felt the sweet breeze of freedom and quickly fluttered off to enjoy the steamy late June sunshine. Others needed a little more encouragement. In a particularly entertaining move, Junebug walked out onto the front sidewalk and encouraged his monarch to take flight by shaking the flower in his hand up and down!
It was all over within about five minutes. A couple butterflies prefered to nectar from the scabiosa flowers near the front sidewalk, while others quickly took off into the neighborhood. At one point, the garbage truck pulled up for the weekly trash collection. I'm not certain they had any idea what they were witnessing, but they had to wonder how it was that these three kids were up and outside before 6:30 on a Friday morning in June, and how all three of them were holding flowers with monarchs perched on them!
Monarch Girls are happy to report that the butterfly with the wing damaged by a fellow monarch was able to take flight! Fortunately, the tear in its wing was not as serious as it first appeared to be, and our gimpy little butterfly should be able to help increase the monarch population!
Having reared only 13 monarchs last season, we are quite pleased to be able to release a dozen monarchs in one day! We anxiously await more new monarchs! With over 40 chrysalides remaining, we are bound to have some even larger release days in the next week or so! Keep reading, and stop to enjoy the butterflies!
