Butterfly release instructions

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Butterflies for Your Butterfly Release
for Weddings, Memorials,
Graduations, and etc.

A butterfly release brings delight and excitement to your special day. A butterfly release symbolizes new beginnings and a new life. Butterflies are released by the bride, groom, bride and groom, Mother's of the bride and groom, guests, the bridal party, or another special person. A Monarch butterfly release brings gasps of awe and wonder as orange wings burst into the air. Guests often snap photographs as butterflies fill the air.

Brides often ask, "How many butterflies should I release?" Releases rang from two to two hundred. The average order is for two dozen butterflies released from a mass release box, basket, or other butterfly release container.

Painted Lady butterflies are smaller than Monarch butterflies. Painted Lady butterfly releases are less expensive. Painted Ladies are content in centerpieces at your wedding, anniversary, dinner, reception, or other event.

We raise many species of butterflies at Shady Oak Butterfly Farm. A mixture of butterfly species for your butterfly release is a wonderful sight. Colors of butterflies in a mixture depends upon the state in which you live.

Butterflies are released at weddings and other events from a mass release container or from individual envelopes or boxes. A butterfly release from a mass container such as a basket or box is the perfect time for butterfly release photographs. Butterflies are content in release containers and will not fly all at once in a mass release unless an accordion box is used for the release. At Shady Oak we carefully pack up to 2 dozen Monarch butterflies in an accordion box for weddings where instant butterfly flight is desired. When a mass container is opened, the person or persons doing the release will gently slip a finger underneath the butterflies which are contentedly sitting and lift them into the air to fly.

When butterflies are released from indivudual boxes or envelopes, each guest experiences the release individually. At a given signal, everyone releases thier butterflies together. As dozens of butterflies lift into the air to fly free into nature for the first time, gasps of delight will lift into the air along with your butterflies. Individual butterfly release envelopes are often personalized with the bride and groom's names and their wedding date. Confetti to match the occasion can be included in the butterfly release envelope.

A butterfly release is not only for you and your guests, but also for nature. These butterflies are not collected from the wild but raised in laboratories for the purpose of a butterfly release. In nature, 98 percent of all butterfly eggs laid will not become adults. Butterfly predators, parasites, and disease take a huge toll on thier lives. At our butterfly farm they are raised in an enclosed laboratory to protect them. After emerging, they are released in a screened garden to dry and strengthen their wings and to drink nectar. After they have eaten well and have strengthened thier wings, they are packed carefully for shipment to the area of the US where they are to be released. These strong healthy butterflies continue the cycle of life in the area of thier release. The USDA governs transportation of butterflies across state line and does not allow butterflies to be released in a state which is not their species native state.

Butterfly farmers take a lesson from nature! We learned from Monarch butterflies which migrate to Mexico, where night temperatures are in the 30s and 40s. Monarch butterflies roost wing to wing in trees, bending six inch tree limbs with the collective weight of their little bodies. We pack your release butterflies snugly in glassine envelopes. These envelopes are packed in an insulated box cooled with an ice pack. The result is that they cannot be bumped and harmed. They simply 'sleep' all the way to their new home.

Full instructions for your butterfly release as well as care of your butterflies are included with your shipment.

Because there are some people who care deeply about butterflies who do not understand the origin and purpose of butterfly releases from a butterfly farmer's viewpoint, I'd like to explain things from this farmer's viewpoint. After watching a butterfly chased by a wasp and her offspring eaten by a wasp, I took her fresh eggs indoors to raise. After doing this for a while (just to save thier lives) and releasing the adults outside when they emerged, I found that I could sell butterfly eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults and save more than just a few butterflies. Since, according to lepidopterists, 98% of all eggs laid never become an adult, this butterfly farmer is delighted to raise the percentage of hatchlings which survive to adult to over 80%.

I started my butterfly farm to add to the number of butterflies in nature. Considering that 98% die in nature, almost all butterflies raised at butterfly farms wouldn't have become an adult to fly if the eggs were laid in nature instead of laid in protected rearing facilities at a farm.

Yes, we call some 'breeding' butterflies and we call them 'livestock'. Remember, the USDA governs transportation of butterflies across state lines. We are not allowed to gather butterflies from the wild to ship. We MUST differentiate 'our' butterflies from those in the wild. Farmers check 'breeder' butterflies for disease via microscopes before using them for egg production. Disease in the wild is horrible. Predators and parasitoids are the inspiration for monster movie creatures.

How happy can a butterfly be? At a farm, they enjoy protected screened gardens with nectar and fruit and all the host plant they could want. Caterpillars are raised where they are given all they can eat.

Considering the sprays used to kill butterflies and the predators purchased and released in our gardens, butterflies need a boost! Gardeners release ladybugs (yes, they eat butterfly eggs), praying mantis, and other parasites and parasitoids which are shipped and released into nature.

This farmer is so enthralled by butterflies that 12 free butterfly eggs are given to anyone who asks! If the person cannot pick up those eggs at the farm, they only need to pay actual shipping expense, not even a packing expense is added to the shipping expense. Free host and nectar plant seeds are given free to anyone who sends a self-addressed-stamped-envelope.

There are many butterfly enthusiasts who raise butterflies as a hobby and release them outdoors but they do not approve of farmers who carefully raise butterflies in large numbers and ship them for release outdoors where they naturally occur. Although they oppose what we do, we respect their passion for butterflies.

For those who oppose butterfly farmers, instead of viewing farmers as those who are making profit off butterflies, view us as those who are so dedicated to butterflies that we are wiling to work long hours to add to the number of butterflies in nature. We provide education about host plants and re-establishing habitat. When a bride buys butterflies to release at her wedding, they are in a state where they are naturally found. The bride has paid for more butterflies to be added to nature in her town, even if she has no interest in butterfly population. If a bride is willing to pay for these butterflies, who should complain? Nature benefits. Butterflies benefit from these releases!


Butterfly Kisses	A Monarch Butterfly released!	Timothy opens an accordion box

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www.Memorialbutterflies.com
Butterflies for Memorials
and Funerals

www.Releasebutterflies.com
Butterflies for Weddings
Butterfly Release Ideas

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All photographs on this site are copyright protected.
For permission to use any photo, please contact Edith Smith at Shady Oak Butterfly Farm.

Butterfly Release companies located outside the mainland United States.
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TO PURCHASE PLEASE CONTACT US edith@buyabutterfly.com
Shady Oak Butterfly Farm Toll free 877-485-2458 12876 SW CR 231 Brooker, Fl 32622 Stephen & Edith Smith

Located 45 minutes from the Butterfly Rainforest Exhibit at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida

This butterfly website built with advice from Starting Dreams.

Information about Butterfly Releases
for Weddings, Graduation, and Memorials

Visit Our Specialty Sites

Member of the
Association for Butterflies: Research, Conservation, Farming, and Gardening at www.forbutterflies.org

At Shady Oak Butterfly Farm we have raised over 40 species of butterflies and moths.

Information about Butterfly Releases for Weddings, Graduation, and Memorials

Visit Our Specialty Sites

Member of the Association for Butterflies: Research, Conservation, Farming, and Gardening at www.forbutterflies.org

At Shady Oak Butterfly Farm we have raised over 40 species of butterflies and moths.

Information about Butterfly Releases
for Weddings, Graduation, and Memorials

Member of the
Association for Butterflies: Research, Conservation, Farming, and Gardening at www.forbutterflies.org