It shocked me a little to see them this morning. I thought I would have more time to prepare myself.
As far as butterfly kits and googling life cycles go, I feel like they are all relatively "early". For instance, I thought it would take about 10 days to for a chrysalises to form, but our caterpillars were faster. I read 12 days (or so) until the butterfly emerges. Our took under a week.
Excitedly, the boys all took some time to look them over and rename them. Thatcher, at 27 months, thought it would be fun to shake them up. Yikes. After they recovered -and I said a quick prayer over them- I placed them into the sun on our back porch, which is screened in for their protection. Also, I DID make certain to get them some sugar water on a napkin, for all their nutritional needs. ...good thing former First Lady Michelle Obama didn't see me feed them this, she would so not approve...hehe.
This post will be followed-up by our BUTTERFLY RELEASE, but here are today's new news and pictures:
First, they are really beautiful. Actually, I saw so much color, I really thought that we might have had Monarch butterflies instead of Painted Ladies. After I looked a little longer, I realized what I thought was a lot of orange, simmered-down some and a rosy pink pooped-up!
Second, there is a lot of blood. Yikes! I know I drew a comparison to our first caterpillar to morphing into her chrysalis to that of a young girl becoming a young lady, but I was not prepared for the blood.
It has been a few hours since I first discovered them absconded (don't you love the word?), and they have been slow to check out the place.
Oh! And here are their chrysalises...from which they absconded:
I wonder how their temperaments will be as they adjust to life in the netting. Our goal is to keep them until they breed and we get some eggs, thus jump-starting the life cycle for our learning once again.
Enjoy!
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