What's Happenin' Hannah? Monarch lays her eggs.

I am excited to tell you all about my new endeavor!
I will be posting, What's Happenin' Hannah? on a regular basis. I look forward to sharing many different topics with you. A few topics include my butterfly garden and its growing eco-system, information on amazing things I come across, how to, special events, organic living and who knows what else I will come up with. This was my first edition. Log onto positivevibemovement.com or my myspace page to read and enjoy future images and videos!
-------------------------------------------
I've been thinking over the past couple days about an opening topic and the answer flew in today... The Monarch Butterfly!

About two months ago I planted three milkweed plants in my yard specifically to attract the monarch butterflies. Within a week I had my first guest! I was so happy.

Their diet consists of a variety of flowering plants however they will only lay their eggs on milkweed because the cute caterpillars the eggs grow into will only eat this poisonous plant. The poison protects them throughout their life cycle. Most predators know better and the ones that don't learn quick and won't make the same mistake again.

Sooner than later I was swimming in caterpillars and realized...they are amazing! They are also very hungry. Luckily the plants' seed pods began to burst everywhere. I propagated over a hundred and formed my army of milkweed for the next generation. It was still diffucult to keep up with their appetite. Over the next few weeks they continued to rule, grew up and moved away from home. All of them! Left me with stubs for what was supposed to be flowers and just up and left. I was thinking, did they migrate early? Was the milkweed greener on the other side?

Three weeks have passed and the milkweed is full grown and flowering again.

But today! One spectacular female monarch; she was rich in every way. Bold, deep orange and black patterns with an effortless flight. She graced my garden with much more than her presence. She left so many new eggs on every plant. I am delighted. I filmed her depositing her eggs and will get the footage on this site ASAP!

My first go around I attempted to grow them in captivity with no luck. I thought maybe the caterpillars didn't like being removed from thier habitat. This time I will collect some of the eggs so they don't notice a difference and maybe I will have some success? Tune in next time...

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• butterfly
• flowers
• garden
• life
• beautiful
• wildlife
• bugs
• hannah
• florida
• caterpillar
• eggs
• summer
• beauty

[hannahpersons]

Hi woopsmybad.

just saw your question.

they land and bend their abdomen underneath the leaves and leave little yellow eggs.

I miss this garden!

[Picaro1]

Well, I have 3 large plants and a number of other ones that are less than 6 inches tall. The monarch lay eggs even on the very small plants.

[hannahpersons]

they would mine too i guess but they are all stubs now. i think there are more eggs on the big one. whoo hoo.

did you check out my new video on the catepillar carnage?

[lhsf94]

er i mean monarch

[lhsf94]

Thats a queen not a monarch. Queens also feed off of milkweed. Thats way to orange to be milkweed.

[woopsmybad100]

how do you know it's laying its eggs?

[420growernorcal]

please comment if u know what catapillars eat fruits and veg in northern california there green and there not tomato worms

[barnowlisme]

I love buterflies Hannah....They truly do evoke positive vibes....Keep us updated