Our Mission
Our Story
To honor Marna's memory, and to make the world a more beautiful place, we are helping to fund meningitis research and Monarch conservation efforts. With your help, we are hoping her memory and mission will grow and spread just like what was once the little patch of milkweed amongst her flowers has done.
'Marna's Milkweed' began innocently enough with two little boys and their love of critters and bugs, and their great grandmother Marna's love of life and all it has to offer. In 2015, Noah (4) and Ethan (2) discovered caterpillars on the milkweed in their backyard. They spent the summer collecting, raising, and finally releasing the bright orange and black butterflies back into the world.
Our Monarchs
Our Process
1
Find and Collect
Monarch Eggs
This process begins in the late spring. We begin looking for eggs on Milkweed plants. Once we find eggs, we take those leaves and keep them safe inside until they hatch into caterpillars.
2
Raise the Caterpillars
to Monarchs
When the caterpillars hatch, we keep them in cages. We normally have about 10-12 caterpillars per cage. We collect milkweed and put that in the cages for them to eat. From there, we just wait for them to form their chrysalis.
3
Tag Monarchs and
Release Them
Once the caterpillars hatch into beautiful Monarchs, we are almost ready to release them! We keep them for 1-2 days to make sure their wings are good and they are able to fly. Then, we release them!
We tag the monarchs that hatch in late August and early September. We hope that some of our monarchs make it Mexico!