My Baby Monarchs :)

Yes, I'm still the looney butterfly lady raising monarchs out back on our lanai. lol. We currently have 11 hungry babies chomping away at the six milkweed plants we bought to sustain them. We had 12, but one was not healthy enough to shed his skin and grow. Here are some photos and video. (proud parent.. ha ha. They grow so fast ya know.. I try to capture every moment before it's gone. lol)

close up of the larva feeding between the small buds. He's barely a centimeter long at this point.

This magnified picture is kinda cool because it contains three stages.. You can see an egg (to the right at the top of the flower stem) which they will eat their way out of, then larva (to the left on a leaf), and thirdly even larger caterpillars in the middle.

growing..

growing...

growing!


Below are some action packed videos of the caterpillars in action. lol. I realize you have to be a monarch lover and advocate to appreciate this.. but bare with me. Watching them eat, grow fat, and kept safe from predators gives me a small sense of accomplishment, ok. ha. Just when you think they're so big they'll bust out of their skin again, they begin crawling away from the milkweed in search of a place to settle into their chrysalis stage. Witnessing the transformation from larva to a beautiful winged butterfly never gets old to me.. It's like watching a miracle and reminds me how great our creator truly is.