Pollinator Workshop And Our Annual Monarch Tag And Release Coming Soon

The Pollinator Workshop

Eastern Bumble Bee and Tiger Swallowtail

Have you ever wondered how come you never see any butterflies or bees on your property?  Now you can find out how to attract these beautiful creatures to your own yard or farm.  Our Pollinator Workshop is a great way to learn how to build native bee habitats that will now only attract the most efficient pollinators to you gardens but attract many different species of butterflies as well.

Did you know that native bees are 10 times more efficient pollinators than honey bees and require hardly any maintenance on your part.  At the workshop you will learn how to build "bee hotels" and to make seed bombs and have a hands on experience doing so.  You will also learn what kind of plants to plant to attract not only these native bees, but many species of butterflies as well. 

Join us on Sept. 26 at 11 pm.   The tickets are $12/person and will include materials to make seed bombs and bee hotels.  Tickets are available on our website, Hopnblueberryfarm.com on the farm store tab.  Reservations are required.  The event takes place here at the farm under shelter.

The Annual Monarch Tag and Release

Male Monarch Butterfly

This is one of our more popular events held during the year.  The Monarch Tag and Release event is free to the public and is very family friendly offering lots of hands on experiences.  At this event, we net live monarchs from one of our pollination fields full of zinnias and we take out our own monarchs that we raise during the year from our butterfly house.  Then small tags are placed on their wings.  After the information is recorded we let them go on their long journey down to central Mexico.

Kids really like the opportunity to hold a butterfly and place the tags on them.  They sure get a kick out of trying to catch the butterflies as well.  All data is recorded along with the special numbers that are assigned to each butterfly released.  We hope to tag 50 butterflies this year, but nature governs the event, so be advised that the number of butterflies tagged may be smaller.  

The event takes place here at the farm on Oct. 3 at 1 pm., rain or shine.  It is an outside event so bring an umbrella if needed.  Butterfly nets are optional, we have a few on hand.  We will also have a few milkweed plants and nets for sale.