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
This is my first year raising monarchs. I had dozens of purple, common, butterfly milkweed that I had sown seeds from my first milkweed plants. I got them from a native NJ organic nursery. I need to know if it is normal to have raised over 80 monarchs? Right now, I have nearly 40 chrysalis hanging, 3-4 caterpillars left that will soon crawl up and J. Also, a friend gave me my very first eastern black swallowtails cats to care for in another smaller cage. They are close to the J period. I have an unbelievable photo of the 37-40 chrysalises on my butterfly cage ceiling. I would be happy to share if I knew how.
I live in Central NY and this is year 3 of raising Monarchs and it is dismal. My first year I released over 20. Last year I released over 50. This year I have found only 2 eggs in late July and brought them in to raise. Everything went well until the first one emerged with wrinkled wings so I had to euthanize it. Thankfully the other one was fine and was released. I have more Common Milkweed than in previous years and many are near a large Butterfly bush that has attracted Monarchs but not as many as in past years but enough that I am confused as to why I have no eggs or cats to find on my plants. Also this is the first year I have not found any Swallowtail eggs or cats. I have raised a few the last few years and usually have some chrysalis overwinter in my cellar for spring release but none to be found on my Parsley or Dill. Very disappointing!
I have been raising Monarchs in Connecticut for a few years. I primarily collect eggs from the 50+ common milkweed plants I have in my flower beds, and I occasionally bring in small larva recently hatched. I was pleasantly surprised in mid-May to find a lot of eggs on my newly emerging milkweed, as we don’t usually have Monarchs arriving in our area until late June. I collected 27 eggs, shared 9 with friends who hadn’t found eggs on their plants, and successfully released 18 adults June 21-22, 2023. More than a month later, I collected 17 more eggs. The adult Monarchs were all released August 22-23. The total I released for this year was 35, and all were healthy. I never observed any adult Monarchs in my yard except the ones I released. It was disappointing not to see many Monarchs around our area this summer, but I was excited to rear and release the ones that I reared from eggs collected in my yard.
I am in Northern Maine, and have raised monarch caterpillars for ~5 years. This year has been very disappointing, as there have been very few monarchs seen (~12 in 2 months!), and only 3 monarch caterpillars found in late July – all successfully raised and released on September 8th – This c/w between #60 and #160 in each of the prior 4 years!. My garden has plenty of healthy milkweed of 6 different varieties, with record amount of rain in June & July. Wondering whether the paucity of monarchs + cats in Northern Maine this year is attributable to the extreme weather events in southern and mid-Atlantic states this spring + early summer. Did not tag my 3 butterflies this year, as my ordered tags never did arrive!
I am in Maryland, only getting the Aug/Sept southerly migration. First year (2020) I found 5 cats on a butterfly bush and two days later they were gone. The next year (2021) I studied what to do and raised/released only ONE Monarch, named Cinderella. Last year (2022) I planted Common Milkweed in pots with planter trays as moats (the pot raised on bricks) and raised/released 15 Monarchs in containers and mesh cages. This year (2023) I released 20 Monarchs. This time I bought bulbs from Brecks and planted them in late spring so they are tender/perfect (meanwhile last years plants in pots are woody) Ants are a HUGE problem so this year I planted the 6 bulbs in two RAISED planter boxes with the legs IN BUCKETS OF WATER. Since ants don’t cross water it only left me with spiders etc as predators. Of the 20 only two were raised from eggs. All 20 were raised individually in containers with lids, then when they were med-large I moved them to a mesh cage to live on cuttings, The two mesh cages were housed on a raised screen porch. I am careful to turn out nearby light lights at night. After eclose, I kept them 24 hours before release, with one kept 2 days due to storms. I used watermelon for food on day 2. This year I had 100% success – although in the early days this summer (before I noted a vagrant stem of grass provided access to my boxes), a few plants had munching holes but no cats. So I may never know if there could have been more. Now I trim all plants back from the planter legs and make sure the buckets for the legs are full of water.