Not too long ago I was outside about to go to my chicken coop when I got distracted by a gorgeous Tiger Swallowtail. Probably the biggest and prettiest one I have seen. She had iridescent blue on the base of her wings that shimmered in the sun.
While watching her, I saw her land on a plum tree and put her butt to it. I walked close once she had moved on and saw that she had deposited and egg on a leaf! I marked the leaf with brightly colored thread and continued on my way to the coop.
On my way back to the house, I checked the tree again, and saw 2 more eggs, so I marked those as well.
Later in the day I went back out after seeing her around the tree multiple times after I went inside. She had deposited 6 more! That got me up to 9 eggs. They were all marked and I left them on the tree until I saw some little heads peeking out on the tip of the eggs, a sign that they are almost hatched.
Yesterday the first caterpillar hatched!
Raising caterpillars from eggs is something I have done for a while, but it was usually monarchs that I had raised. Now that I have moved across the country from where I used to live, I haven't seen any monarchs or their eggs.
I currently have 4 Black Swallowtail chrysalis as well. I did not raise them from eggs, I found them as caterpillars near my chicken coop.
regal
