Great photo of the hatchling. I've gotten pretty matter-of-fact about removing eggs from unwanted places. I usually just roll them off with my finger. They hatch. The eggs are really durable.

Hope you have a source of wild milkweed close by. I lost a lot of monarch caterpillars this spring because of lack of available food. But, I'm raising a second brood, and these are doing well. There is lots of Asclepias viridis growing in fields, and it is blooming, so it's easy to spot from the road.

Enjoy raising your babies.

Sandy

The pictures are great, Elisabeth, especially the one of the hatchling - fantastic! I've removed big old saturnid moth eggs from various places with success, but moving a little butterfly egg would take exact precision. You must have been precise!
I sure hope you find enough food for the babies!
This weather is really freaky! It's supposed to go down to the upper 40's or 50 tonight. The wind has been blowing from the north all day, the high today was about 70 degrees at most, and it feels like winter. We set low temperature records last night and will probably do the same tonight. We're having a drought down here, having had far below our normal rainfall - very strange.
Sherry

Congratulations on your Monarch babies, Elisabeth! I had a momma show up here two weeks ago (April 30) that laid five eggs on the few plants of milkweed that I had outside, but none of them hatched. Now I'm waiting on some Black Swallowtail eggs to hatch within the next day probably.
Cathy

I forgot to mention that I'm in central PA.

Cathy,

If your weather has been cool, the eggs may still hatch. Don't discard them. I chilled some eggs to keep them from hatching too soon because of my limited MW. Monarch Watch told me I could delay the egg hatching by chilling them for 5 days.

Sandy

Really nice shots of the egg and the hatchling Elisabeth! Wow, I can't imagine moving a butterfly egg with my hand. I know I'd mess that up! I wonder if the rounded end of a metal fingernail file would work. And, you moved the eggs to where? I have been overrun with Mama Monarchs dumping hundreds of eggs already this season. It's getting ridiculous here. I had 2 perfect adults to eclose day before yesterday. I carried them over to one of my butterfly bushes that already has open blooms. It has been cold here, and they didn't seem to be inclined to move on their own. If I had not had the Common MW and the Butterfly Weed in my yard, they'd have been in big trouble. My Tropical MW is still really small yet. The pots that I overwintered in the garage from last year are coming along faster than the new seedlings, so I think I will overwinter more pots of the Tropical MW this winter.~~Angie

Wow, good for you moving the eggs, I have never tried that, been so afraid I would squish the eggs. Where did you put them then? I have not found any eggs yet, so far only seen one Monarch so far but I am sure they will be coming soon.

Congratulations! I'm still amazed at how early you midwesterners get Monarchs.

wow minrose, you've seen a monarch? Maybe it's time to start checking my common milkweed. We are sure having beautiful weather this week in Minnesota!

Angie, why don't you try potting full-sized tropical MW? My overwintered pots are already flowering. (actually they never really stopped, but I trimmed them down before replanting.)

I am hoping to finally finish all my planting today so off to the garden...

Tony

Tony, I am confused by your question. Sorry. I wintersow Tropical MW seed each year and have good success with that. Last winter, I decided to bring some of the full grown plants into my garage to overwinter, hoping that they would come back in the spring when I brought them out. So, I have 65 pots of Tropical MW out on my porch right now, but only a dozen or so of them are last year's plants. Those are bigger already than this year's seedlings of course. Did you overwinter your plants inside your house?

Sandy, Yes, it's been really cool here and rainy. About 1 out of every 7-10 days is nice. Really yucky spring, and so I can see why I'm not seeing much action in the way of butterflies. I didn't discard the eggs, although at this point I have very little hope of them amounting to anything considering that they were laid over two weeks ago. The Monarch eggs are outside on potted tropical milkweed plants on the porch, so they're not in the warm. I brought in several Black Swallowtail eggs when she laid them on the 11th, so it's been 6 days for them now and they still didn't hatch. They're in the laundry room, which is warmer than outside but cooler than the rest of the downstairs. I still have hopes for them. I can see that the eggs have gotten to be a darker color than what they were when I brought them in.

Kind of off the subject but do your false nettle plants kind of look sickly for awhile after you plant them? The ones that I started from cuttings that I took last year really look pitiful. I hope that they make it. They really looked nice insider here over the winter but they sure don't now. I don't think any Red Admirals would want to lay eggs on that unsubstantial foliage. The FN plants that are in the milk jugs from winter sowing are just teeny tiny little plants, which makes me wonder if they'll even get big enough this year at all to plant outside in the ground. I don't think they're any higher than the white part of my fingernails (and I keep my nails short!). I might end up bringing the plants inside over the winter if they don't step it up. My cardinal flower plants look the same...very tiny. I'm glad that I started some NJ tea bushes inside this year so that I might be able to get some more of those planted this year. I think only one made it over the winter that I started last year. Those were wintersown. NJ tea grows really slowly, so I'm thinking it might be best to have them going inside to give them a head start. The ones I planted outside last year were only about an inch high. Sorry that was off the subject. I'm thinking of the slow-growing plants that I have.
Cathy

My False Nettle is not as pretty as Susan's is. She has the best looking FN I've ever seen. I think she feeds it chicken manure and has it in good shade. Mine gets morning sun. However, it spreads, once it's established. Maybe she'll see this post and hop in the conversation!

My NJ tea is blooming after 4 years. You are right about it being slow. I also added a Marie Bleu variety last year, which has blue flowers. It is getting ready to bloom as well. It has actually grown faster than the NJ.

I planted Asclepias sullivanti last year. It is still really tiny. I hope it takes off this year. It took forever for it to come up--I'd just about given up on it.

Sandy

Glad to hear y'all say that about NJ Tea. I have four plants, and they were puny until this year ... then *poof*.

Cathy, I planted a lot of FN seedlings in a shady spot, and all but one promptly died. I'm going to try again next year but wait until the plants are more mature to plant them.

Jeff

Thanks everyone! They seem to be doing well still. Angie, I think a rounded metal nail file would work.

I moved the eggs to a leaf and put them all in a tupperware container. I know we all use different methods (just remembering some of the discussions last year :)). This works for me when they are small. I use the sandwich size and put a white napkin on the bottom (fits perfectly!). The napkin helps with humidity and I can see the little caterpillars easily and keep track of them. I find I occasionally have to move one back to a leaf when they wander off. When they get bigger I move them to a critter cage so they have more room.

Jeff, we don't get many till July. Just the occasional one or two this early. I did see a second monarch at another location a few days later. So, I think a few must have come up with all the wacky weather we are having. It didn't make it past 46 degrees today and it was 88 degrees last week. Miss Sherry I wish we could send some of this rain to you! We had over 11 inches in April and maybe three sunny days over the last month. It is raining again and we have rain predicted until the weekend. Sigh..at least the grass looks pretty!

Off thread but is everyone else having a good bird year? I think because last year we had sooo many insects and seeds we are seeing a ton of birds this spring. Also, I saw a herd, and I mean a herd (10 plus) of squirrels one day under an oak tree. It's going to be an interesting summer!

Cheers,
Elisabeth

Yeah, maybe Susan can share her secret of having False Nettles that would make the rest of us green with envy. :) I have mine in a place that gets partial sun. I know for sure that the plants are lacking for water. Actually, maybe that's the problem, so much rain?

Oh, I'm going to have to look up Marie Bleu. I bet that really looks pretty with the blue flowers! Blue is my favorite color.

Even though I've never tried starting Asclepis sullivanti, I can certainly relate to having slow plants like that, like the ones I've mentioned, and I'm sure that I've had a few others like that that I can't recall offhand.
Cathy