Emerging Painted Ladies
Our Painted lady Butterflies have finally Emerged! What a site to see for us all,Alhamdulilah!
I have created a nice little slide show of both the emerging & releasing of these beautiful creatures.
The emerge video wasn’t so clear since the butterfly that had already emerged disturbed one of the chrysalides and it started shaking as way to chase off any predators. I just posted it to share what little video we did have. Maybe next time we can get more clear video to share, insha Allah.
The poem at the beginning reads:
Allah created everyting!
He created you and me!
He created the grass and the tree
Allah created creepy crawly bugs
He even created my ummie and Abi who give me hugs
Allah created the beautiful blue sky
He also created the Painted Lady Butterfly!
Allahu Akbar! Alhamdulilah!
All my children had part in writing the poem, I just put it all together to share with you. *smile*
The emerge happened 8 days after they turned into chrysalides.
On the 8th day, “Big Lug” went to the butterfly habitat and said “mommy, we have a butterfly”
I went over, and sure enough there was a little painted lady with it’s wings spread!
They day went on and 4 more emerged, one after the other. It happened so fast I wasn’t able to really get any video of it.
It was the neatest experience to see for us all though,Masha Allah.
“Chunky”, my now 3 yr old was so amazed to see the whole process! He had that starry eyed look and smile on his face. He just couldn’t wait to get his hands in the netting to play with the butterflies.
“Big Lug” is my little entomologist, he as my little observer. He sat so patiently and quielty and just watched and waited! Masha Allah.
We talked all about the proboscus of the butterfly,the wings,the legs,antennae,eyes,everything!
They even learned about the expelling of the meconium after emerging, this is not something we had expected to see, so we all learned something with this project,masha Allah.
My children learned new words like fragile, and meconium and emerge. They learned so much. They even learned how to be gentle with these little guys.
3 days later the last 5 emerged but they did it over night so we missed it,but masha Allah they were all alive and well.
We placed orange wedges in the habitat for the butterflies until the weather permitted their release.
Butterfly Release
We chose the first warm day we had to release our beautiful painted ladies. We went to a botanical garden to make it easy for the butterflies to reach nectar quickly.
As we started nearing our destination they started mating! Subhan Allah!
We kept seeing them act frantic,and thought it was just them wanting to get out, but we were wrong!
They actual attached and stayed that way for the whole release! 8 of our 10 butterflies mated,Alhamdulilah.
This was a wonderful family bonding moment! Everyone took part in the release,masha Allah. My husband even held the little fragile creatures. He was a bit freaked out to start with, but once I placed a butterfly in his hand he really got into it! Masha Allah.
|
I would say to all of you out there, if you haven’t yet done this hands on project of raising butterflies to do so! It is a great way to teach your children all about life of the butterfly and appreciate what Allah Subhana Wa Ta Ala has created. We plan on raising monarchs next year insha Allah
|
Our next project would be to raise lady bugs, insha Allah
STAY TUNED……………
