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?
===========================================================================================
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.
===========================================================================================
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
At first, I felt so awful reading the number of success stories but then I started reading stories that mirrored my experience this year. It was tough and I stopped a month ago because I felt as if I was doing more harm than good. So I put my plants in the garden with babies and saw that they grew then they would disappear-I hope they set off the make their chrysalis and were born healthy and flew away. Before I decided to stop, my cats either ate and ate and grew to a healthy size only to go up, make hang in their J’s and things went south. They ended up dying like that or they would start to form a chrysalis only to stop after the first bulge of green appeared and they never finished and died. It was beyond heartbreaking. The flip side is the ones that made it all the way to the chrysalis stage were born with bent wings or no strength and would fall and, as someone else said, flip around the cage. I only released 3 butterflies that barely flew away. I don’t know why they were dying in the J. I had read another Californian was having the same issues as me and I somehow believe it had something to do with all the rains we had in the spring. I know what that did to the plants in the garden (lot of Fungas damage). I don’t have another explanation. I never felt such relief after I stopped. Of course, I know that come Spring I’ll be anxious to begin again. Suzanne – Hollywood Hills, CA
I raised and released 25 of the Monarchs in August and 6 more to be released soon in mid September
By the end of this season around 50 monarchs will been released in my backyard.
Is this normal? This is my first year raising monarchs. This is allot!
I live in Omaha, Nebraska, near the center of the metro area, so it seems my modest milkweed patch may be an oasis for the few passing monarchs. (Nearby at Creighton Prep is another monarch oasis / milkweed patch.) This is my third year raising monarchs. My milkweed patch spread a little since last year, and I now had enough milkweed so that all the monarchs I raised (except one egg) came from this plot. This was one of my goals.
I also raised quite a few from eggs this year, thanks to the method Tony recommended about putting them in separate containers. That was a bonus because I had poor luck with eggs last year.
I raised a total of 35 healthy monarchs. Twenty were females, and 15 were males.
There were 5 losses from 5 different causes. One was accidental, so be careful and look closely when grabbing a feeding tube as one may be crawling on it.
Lesson from last year: Don’t release them too early or on very windy days, as they are fine waiting a day if necessary. Most were released within 8 to 12 hours of emerging, and they often flew to the nearest tree and stayed there for a few more hours. Some had to wait a day, but all the releases were happy (for me and the butterfly!)
I also focused more on cleanliness, from rinsing the leaves better to cleaning the cage daily. I cannot emphasize the number of positive raising tips and hints I’ve picked up from Tony’s emails and posts.
Northwest MN. 30 total released
0 accidental death
0 disease or parasite issues
2 unexplained deaths
13 healthy males
17 healthy females
My first year raising and the info in this blog was invaluable. I raised a mix of eggs and wild cats. Cats hatched from eggs were raised in separate cages from wild caught to prevent possible spread of disease and/or parasites. Both were roughly grouped by instar stage. All of my milkweed was wild grown but carefully cleaned before using. I had 2 small, egg-hatched cats die unexpectedly. I just found them dead on the bottom of the cage and immediately removed them in case of parasite activity but had no other issues. I had 2 form their chrysalis on the test tube rack but because all of the cats in the cage were the same age, they all pupated within a few days of each other and I disassembled the rack and propped it up at an angle so the new butterflies would have room to spread their wings when hatching. 1 chrysalis fell while still a bit soft and did not have enough cremaster to rehang. I propped it upright near the cage side and it developed normally.
Biggest lessons learned. Cats poop A LOT. Paper towel on the cage bottom and rack bottom helped me clean up faster. Grouping by instar stage helped me predict development so I could plan travel, time away, etc. It also seemed to help prevent big cats hurting little instars or knocking down ready to hatch chrysalis.