first Monarch of 2011

[chanceychelsey]

Saw my first Monarch this afternoon on the drive home from work. It was in the northern boundary of Toronto!

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario

[JoAnn]

I had the first Monarch in my yard yesterday, in Thunder Bay. I have gathered 8 eggs and am looking forward to more. Actually, there are more eggs but in the flower heads or stems and I don't want to remove those.

[Robin L.]

Jo Ann: If you're careful, you can safely remove the rest of those eggs from the flower heads and stems, or even from the leaves if you would prefer not to break them off of the plant. Those little eggs are actually a lot sturdier than they look, and you can just use your finger nail to gently flick them from wherever they have been laid right into a carefully-positioned collection cup. You can then place them on a small piece of milkweed on a damp paper towel in whatever hatching container you have set up, and they will hatch there just fine.

[chanceychelsey]

Brought home a caterpillar from work approximately 1 1/2 weeks ago, came home from a weekend away and I now have my first chrysalis! I have only found 3 eggs on my crop of milkweed and those were found last week. I keep checking, but nothing new.

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario

[JoAnn]

Thanks Robin. I did try last night and you are right the eggs are quite hard and not fragile as I thought. However, on my first try it fell to the ground and I felt awful. The mosquitos were bad last night so I gave up. I now have 21 eggs but will try again today to remove more. This is only my second year raising them in the house so I have a lot to learn.

[JoAnn]

[quote="chanceychelsey"]Brought home a caterpillar from work approximately 1 1/2 weeks ago, came home from a weekend away and I now have my first chrysalis! I have only found 3 eggs on my crop of milkweed and those were found last week. I keep checking, but nothing new.

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario[/quote]


Good luck this year. Do you also raise them in the house? So far, I have only seen 2 Monarchs in my yard - both about 7 pm but I seem to have a lot of eggs so I am sure more have visited. Hope we have another good year like last year.

[chanceychelsey]

This is my 5th? year raising them inside. Last year was my best in numbers (although not nearly as many as some have done). I raised 225 in total and tagged 150 in the fall. Last year the egg laying seemed to come in just two waves. I got a large number in early July and then nothing until early August or later. My last guys tagged were very late and I actually had a co-worker release them at her home which is probably 3 hours southwest of me to give them a chance!

Good Luck!

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario

[JoAnn]

[quote="chanceychelsey"]This is my 5th? year raising them inside. Last year was my best in numbers (although not nearly as many as some have done). I raised 225 in total and tagged 150 in the fall. Last year the egg laying seemed to come in just two waves. I got a large number in early July and then nothing until early August or later. My last guys tagged were very late and I actually had a co-worker release them at her home which is probably 3 hours southwest of me to give them a chance!

Good Luck!

Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ontario[/quote]

I now have 42 cats and 5 eggs. These are keeping me busy and can't imagine raising much more. Perhaps I worry about them too much and spend too much time just watching them. I have a lot of questions but I know there is a lot of threads in this forum so will try to read up before asking them. Good luck this year.