Raising Book Resources
Raising Hope for the 2023 Monarch Migration- Share Your Raise The Migration Results
Raise The Migration is an annual North American challenge to raise monarch butterflies to release for fall’s annual monarch migration. The time has come to share your 2023 experience and raise it forward…
The raising season is coming to an end, so we’d love to hear how many butterflies you released for fall’s annual 2023 monarch migration…and more importantly, what lessons you’ve learned through this amazing raising experience?
If you’ve still got some raising to do, raise on! But please post in the comment box at the bottom of this page after you’ve released your last butterfly.
Every year, I start Raise The Migration in July, but monarchs raised at that time aren’t actually migration generation butterflies…they’re the parents to that amazing generation of travelers.
There’s no way to tell whether butterflies will mate or migrate, but one telltale sign of a migration generation butterfly is its size, which is dependent on how much the caterpillar eats. The first super-sized caterpillars start to form chrysalides around the first week of September in our northern region…
In the garden, you can tell non-migratory butterflies by their worn out wings. Non-migratory males are also more aggressive, chasing off potential competition while seeking out female companionship…migratory monarchs are in sexual diapause and only interested in stocking up on nectar for the long journey ahead.
So how did our Raise The Migration Monarchs fare this season and what lessons did we learn raising forward?
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If you’re interested in a step-by-step how to raise monarchs book (choose paperback or PDF download) please check out the monarch raising guide by clicking this butterfly photo:
For anyone who purchases the guide (or any other item) from Monarch Butterfly Life, you will be invited to our closed facebook group where you can discuss raising monarchs with other raisers and post your photos.
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Here are Raise the Migration results from the past eight seasons:
2022- 100% Survival Rate
2021- 86% Survival Rate
2020- 82% survival rate
2019- 81% survival rate
2018- 93% survival rate
2017- 100% survival rate
2016- 96% survial rate
2015- 96% survival rate
2014- 90% survival rate
2013- 100% survival rate
As you can see from the results, this raising system is consistently producing healthy monarchs to help support the struggling monarch population.
Raise The Migration 2023 Results
Caterpillar Escapes
By keeping monarch eggs and baby caterpillars in sealed food containers, and raising larger caterpillars in the mesh cages, we never lose caterpillars.
I think the closest we have come was a few years back when I forgot to close a cage door and found a caterpillar crawling on top of the cage. 🐛 😱
Unexplained Caterpillar Deaths
None
Caterpillar Diseases and Parasites?
None
Accidental Deaths?
I carelessly removed a small caterpillar that was getting ready to molt inside the plastic food container. It was not able to fully shed its skin and did not survive.
Chrysalis Problems
None
Butterfly Eclosure Issues
None
Final Results
Our totals will be taken from all eggs that have successfully hatched in our care. We don't count eggs that were parasitized outside or monarchs brought in as caterpillars because they could have parasites too.
This year, we ended up with 9 migration generation monarchs...all have been 'unintentional' after pulling wayward egg-upied common milkweed coming up in the lawn.
So how many survived to reach butterhood?
1 accidental death
0 disease or parasite issues
0 unexplained deaths
3 healthy males
5 healthy females
89% survival rate
Lessons Learned
There have been a few lessons learned throughout this season and it's the result of having a new outdoor raising setup.
In past seasons, we raised in a 3-season porch with the windows open, which protected growing monarchs from extreme weather, while still exposing them to environmental cues telling them to migrate. This year, we raised outdoors and barely avoided a couple catastrophes:
- Protect the cage from heavy rains above- we did this by placing the cage on a bench under an evergreen. On the other side of the deck, we place cages under the awning (prevents drownings and falling chrysalides)
- If heavy rain is forecast, consider removing the poo poo platter so rain doesn't pool on the cage floor (prevents drownings)
- Protect monarchs from strong winds- we ended up using two paver bricks in each cage (prevents cages from falling or blowing away)
- Crowded Caterpillars often Pupate on Milkweed Leaves- We used smaller cages this season and having to use two pavers inside each minimized space which made plant leaves too enticing to form chrysalides
- If a caterpillar pupates on a leaf that's OK, but separate it from feeding caterpillars (prevents chrysalis from falling to floor if leaf gets eaten)
- Use your magnifier- our lone accidental death of '23 could have been prevented if I used it to see that a small caterpillar I moved was actually molting. (When you see better, you do better!)
- Keep Cages away from Predators- we have been lucky with insects and larger predators chewing through the cage to this point, but there is always a greater chance you will have issues with an outdoor raising setup
We were very lucky this season was a success. On a windy night, the cage nearly blew off the table it was on becuase I was using rocks instead of the heavier paver bricks to secure the stage. This could have severely injured or killed most of our brood
I much prefer the indoor setup with exposure to natural outdoor conditions. We will be investing in a greenhouse or arboretum for raising purposes next season and will keep you posted.
Migration Memories 2023
Our Mexican sunflowers were a big hit with migrating monarchs, swallowtails, hummingbirds, and bees this season. Here's a Minnesota Migration Moment from early September:
...and here's our final release monarch female stocking up on nectar September 20th:
I hope you enjoyed reading about my Raise The Migration '23 results and lessons learned raising monarchs through the butterfly life cycle .
And now, I'd love to hear about your experience...
Share Your Results?! ✍️
Please share your results at the bottom of this page and let us know how many monarchs you released to help boost the struggling monarch population…remember to include your location.
More importantly, please share the most valuable lesson(s) you learned about raising monarch butterflies, that you believe can help others raising forward.
Thank you for helping to Raise the Migration in 2023
189 comments
I’m in London Ontario. In the summer of 2021, my aunt in Windsor Ontario introduced me to raising Monarchs and gave me some swamp milkweed seeds which were planted in the front flower bed in the fall. In the spring of 2022, the milkweeds came up, but since it was their first year of growing, the plants were sparse and didn’t attract any Monarchs. In fact, I haven’t seen any Monarchs in my area for years.
This year, the milkweed roots had taken better hold and I had about twice as many stems come up strong and quite a few newer small stems came up through the growing season. The Monarchs were late arriving in London this year, with the first sighting of a laying female around the 30th of July. Around the first of August, I found 4 eggs on the leaves and 2 cats a couple days later, and another 5 the following week.
Two eggs had not hatched as the leaf patches they were on went moldy, due to over misting to keep the leaf patches green. Later found it was better to mist the paper towel underneath the leaf patches and not the leaves themselves. Lesson learned!
Of the 2 cats found outside and brought in, one of the chrysalides fell to the bottom of the habitat and did not survive. The other cat and 7 remaining eggs survived and 8 (6 female, 2 male) were released this year, with the last one released on Sept 11.
Survival rate for my first year of raising Monarchs was 73%. Considering the survival rate in the wild is only about 2%, my first year of raising Monarchs ended quite well.
This is our first year to raise monarchs. We have 6 chrysalis right now. The five we raised from eggs are in one mesh cage. The other is by himself in a cage and we named him Lucky because I found him while gathering milkweed for the others. He was pretty big when I found him and he made his chrysalis about a week ago. The ones we raised from eggs just made theirs one-by-one in the last 30 or so hours. Now, we wait!
I raised 2 butterflies from cats. I used a wooden crate with a mesh laundry bag over it. First time I’ve ever done this, it was an amazing experience! The time it took them to go from the J hang to chrysalis was what surprised me the most. Literally just overnight. The chrysalis hung for almost 2 weeks before they got dark. I released them 2 days apart. Love the experience and will definitely try it again next year ♥️🦋
I apologize …. I forgot to add the survival rate in raising Monarchs. It was 96%! Thank you for adding this to my report.
I live in Warwick, RI. This year I have raised 115 with 18 monarchs pending. 18% drop from last year. I believe the drop was caused by a tremendous amount of rain the entire month of July and smoke that came down from Canada. I did see lots of Cabbage Whites, some Eastern Tiger and Black Swallowtails, Skippers, a few Painted Ladies, American Coppers, Pearl Crescents, and a Red Spotted Purple (part of a swallowtail family but without tails). I was able to raise a few Black Swallowtails.
I joined the Monarch Watch for the first time and was able to tag 50 Monarchs. However, I could have tagged more but I didn’t have enough tags. This year I was also able to grow giant milkweed from roots. I also have acquired milkweed pods which has provided me with seeds for planting this year and next. I too have found that Mexican Sunflowers are awesome for the Monarchs. I planted mine the middle of May and they are still going strong this month of September.
I am grateful to have had the chance to follow, over the years, Tony Gomez and his incredible insight into raising the Monarchs.