I have now volunteered in the hoop house! visitors really do come from all walks of life, I've seen and helped children and parents, elderly couples, teenagers, and families. Some stay for only a minute and others sit in there for hours.
The feeding station is by far the most popular activity in the exhibit. By saturating a Q-tip with gatorade, and then presenting it to the butterfly, you can get a close look at a butterfly and watch them feed! First you put the q-tip towards their antenna so they can smell the treat, then they will taste the treat with their feet and finally suck up the juice through their proboscis.
I've finally started to see eggs and today I saw my first caterpillar! In a week or so the leaves of the plants in the house are going to look a lot different. In the past years, the milkweed has been reduced to just sticks in a matter of days! We will have to start capturing many of the monarch caterpillars to release them into the wild very soon. They can get out of hand very quickly.
I've also seen butterflies that are fresh out of the chrysalis. Not the most majestic sight. When a butterfly first comes out they have a really fat body and tiny little wings. The wings are small so as to not take up too much space in the chrysalis. Once emerging, they will hang out and pump their wings full of a fluid called meconium. This fluid is pumped out of their fat bodies and into the vein structure of the wings so that they have sturdy and full wings.