Monarch of the Kitchen

We named this monarch caterpillar Ted. I’ve been wanting to find one (or more) to observe the process of caterpillar-to-butterfly again; we didn’t do it last year, but for several years prior to that we did.

The biggest monarch extravaganza was in 2011, when we shepherded about 20 monarchs to butterflyhood. I wrote about it on my other blog in this series of posts. I was embarrassed at the time, recognizing how excessive that was — but then in September our area was hit by a massive flood that completely covered the valley where we’d found all the caterpillars. We saved 20 of them, at least. And we had a blast!

This year I definitely envision a smaller operation! But if we should find a friend or two for Ted in this short period of feeding on milkweed, sleeping, and growing by leaps and bounds before making a chrysalis, we certainly have the room. (Edited to add: we added one more, pictured here.)

Meantime, sweet dreams, future butterfly.