Our Menagerie of Butterflies

Our Menagerie of Butterflies

Eastern Shore life is simply the best. Over the past few years, we have put in endless hours on our Kent Island farm to allow our bees to produce two types of our Eastern Shore Honey. To share our paradise with you, we're publishing our Eastern Shore Life series to spotlight the happenings on the farm.

zebra swallowtail butterfly on Chesterhaven Beach Farm on gooseneck loosestrife
zebra swallowtail butterfly on Chesterhaven Beach Farm on gooseneck loosestrife

Hoards of Eastern Shore Butterflies

On the farm, we see oodles of butterflies during the summer. Monarchs, swallowtails, painted ladies, and cabbage whites make up most of the butterfly population on our farm. These beautiful insects help to pollinate flowers by skipping from bloom to bloom while they feed. Some tend to stick to one or two flowers, while others will feed on almost anything.

Here, a painted lady visits salvia. These butterflies have bright orange and red wings that and hidden by a bland underside.

painted lady butterfly

Tiger swallowtails are large, brightly colored, and very common around the farm. Bright yellow wings make them easy to spot among the flowers - except when they visit yellow blooms! Host plants for tiger swallowtails include fruit trees, and we have plenty of those on the farm to keep them happy.

eastern shore life-butterfly enjoying a flower on chesterhaven beach farm

Monarch butterflies are becoming increasingly more elusive due to habitat loss. They lay eggs only on plants in the milkweed family, which gardeners often remove from their landscapes. Milkweed plants produce beautiful, fragrant blooms in an array of colors including yellow, mauve, orange, and bright pink. We encourage you to not only allow wild milkweeds to grow where they please, but to plant your own from seed or nursery pots.

Monarch butterfly migration

Late September on Chesterhaven Beach Farm we experienced a beautiful moment when the monarchs stopped by on the way somewhere warm and they decided to stick around for a while.

Monarch butterfly migration is the phenomenon, mainly across North America, where the subspecies Danaus plexippus plexippus migrates each summer and autumn to and from overwintering sites on the West Coast of California or mountainous sites in Central Mexico. ... No individual butterfly completes the entire round trip. Read more.

monarch butterfly on salvia spikes

Butterfly weed is a vibrant member of the milkweed family and is often grown for its large, showy bunches of orange flowers. Hummingbirds also love the flowers, as do bees!

Butterfly Weed growing on Chesterhaven Beach Farm

Common milkweed blooms from mid to late summer on our farm. Everything from bees to beetles loves it, but it's especially important to the monarchs on Kent Island.

Milkweed grows wild on our Kent Island farm.

Cabbage whites are not native to North America, and in some areas, they can be a massive pest that ruins crops in the mustard family (hence the name "cabbage" white). However, on the farm, they are a beneficial pollinator that selectively visits yellow and purple flowers.

Cabbage white in a field at Chesterhaven Beach Farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore

Blooming lavender plants can attract dozens of cabbage whites during the hot months. Come late summer and fall, sunflowers and asters are popular places for the butterflies to gather. I think that these little guys are charming, even if they're a bit of a pest.

new row of grosso X featuring yellow butterfly

Hummingbird moths also bumble around our farm. These little curiosities buzz around from flower to flower, pollinating as they go. While these aren't a type of butterfly (they're only distant cousins), hummingbird moths are a sign of the health of the ecosystem and are a big joy to see in the garden.

Butterflies are important to Eastern Shore Life

Blackwing butterfly on blackeyed susan

Butterflies don't produce honey, but they are an important cornerstone in the ecosystem. These insects pollinate a large number of flowers while also serving as a food source for birds and bats.

Sunflower with beautiful black butterfly on chesterhaven beach farm

The National Wildlife Federation provides plenty of information on how to bring butterflies to your own backyard. We hope that you'll grow native plants in your yard or balcony to support our pollinating friends.

Butterfly on thyme plants

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.


Nathaniel Hawthorne
yellow butterfly on chesterhaven beach farm on mountain mint

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