Today, on our way to the car at Shelburne Farms, we found three monarch caterpillars! So I loaded everyone in the car and found a container to trasport the critters home. The best I could find was an empty McDonald's cup from breakfast, so I loaded the crawlers in, still on their milkweed of course, and brought them home. On our way, I had to enlist the knowledge and previous experience of a friend, who told me I just how much milkweed these little critters eat in a day, and that I needed to stock up on MUCH more milkweed ASAP (like before we got home). After finding out other vital info on hatching butterflies, we set out (in the dark) to find a milkweed supply. We set the caterpillars up in their new home (we just happened to have a butterfly tent hanging around in the garage, just waiting for this occasion) and sat down to do some more research. Here's a great website we found: http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/ This site tells things such as how to tell boy and girl butterflies apart, the various stages of development, and much, much more!
Here's some pictures:
