Growing Family

UK home and garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for busy family life, written by Catherine Hughes

Insect Lore Butterfly Garden Review & giveaway

by 246 Comments

Welcome to a new review and giveaway on the blog – this week I’ve a fantastic prize courtesy of the lovely people at Insect Lore.  They are offering one lucky winner a fabulous Live Butterfly Garden kit, worth £20.

insect lore butterfly garden

We’ve been having a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks reviewing the Live Butterfly Garden.  What a brilliant nature project to do with the kids!

The Butterfly Garden arrives in the post in a really nicely presented box.  When the children opened it they were so surprised and excited – it would make a lovely gift.

insect lore butterfly garden

Inside the box is everything you need to hatch 5 painted lady butterflies.  Depending on which option you choose, you either get a little pot containing 5 live caterpillars, or a voucher to redeem for the caterpillars when it suits you.  You also get a pop-up habitat, a little pipette for feeding nectar to your butterflies, and full instructions on what to do.

Your caterpillars have their own food supply in their pot, so all you need to do is watch them eat and grow – and boy do they know how to eat!  When ours arrived they were around 2cm long but in just a few days they were huge!  Watching them grow almost before your eyes was so fascinating.

insect lore butterfly garden caterpillarsinsect lore butterfly garden caterpillarsinsect lore butterfly garden caterpillars

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the caterpillars had grown big enough they each turned into a chrysalis, hanging from the top of the pot.

insect lore butterfly garden caterpillars

The children were a bit worried about the slowcoach who took longer to do this, but he was fine in the end.  At this stage you transfer the chrysalides to the habitat, where they can hatch into butterflies; I was a little nervous about doing this but it all went smoothly, it’s important to wait until they have fully hardened before moving them to avoid any damage.

And then it was a waiting game; we all became completely hooked on checking our little visitors.

insect lore butterfly garden

The butterflies take 7-14 days to hatch, ours took about 7 days.  The first one decided to pop out while we were on the school run and the children were completely amazed to come home to a butterfly.

insect lore butterfly garden butterflies

After that we never took our eyes off the habitat!  We managed to witness two butterflies emerging from their chrysalis, it’s amazing to watch and happens so much quicker than I was expecting.

Once your butterflies have emerged and their wings have hardened you can decorate their habitat with twigs, leaves and flowers, and feed them with nectar (sugar water) or pieces of fruit. This is a lovely activity for the children and a great opportunity to observe your butterflies uncurling their long feeding tubes to suck up the nectar.

Insect Lore advise you to set your butterflies free after 2-3 days.  One of ours hung around with us for a while after leaving the habitat – just magical to watch.

insect lore butterfly garden butterflies

We had such a great experience with the Live Butterfly Garden.  Being able to witness a life cycle in such a fun, easy way was fantastic for the kids – and the adults too actually.  We learned all about life cycles and caring for creatures, and we had a lovely family experience in the process.

The Butterfly Garden would make a great gift or a brilliant activity when you’re at home during the school holidays.  It costs £20 from Insect Lore or you can enter the competition to win one below.  The prize is a Live Butterfly Garden complete with a voucher for 5 live caterpillars to be redeemed at your convenience.  Visit the Insect Lore website for more information.

insect lore butterfly garden

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the giveaway tweet this message:

I’d love to win a Live Butterfly Garden worth £20 from @insectlore via @growingfamilyuk http://wp.me/p5s5zJ-qb

then leave a comment letting me know you’ve done it.

For extra entries:

•Follow @growingfamilyuk on Twitter

•Follow Insect Lore on Facebook

•Follow Growing Family on Instagram

•Follow Insect Lore on Pinterest

Leave a separate comment for every entry that you do, for the purpose of the random number generator.  Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY CLOSES: 5TH AUGUST 11.59PM

UK ENTRIES ONLY

Terms & Conditions:

•The prize is a Live Butterfly Garden with certificate for 5 live caterpillars from Insect Lore worth £20. There is no cash alternative.

•Entrants must tweet the message and leave a comment as per the instructions.

•Extra entries via following @growingfamilyuk on Twitter, liking Insect Lore on Facebook, following Growing Family on Instagram and following Insect Lore on Pinterest.

•All steps listed above must be followed to ensure the proper qualification into the giveaway.

•Open to mainland UK residents aged 18 and over, excluding employees and relatives of Catherine Hughes and Insect Lore.

•The giveaway closes on 5th August 2015 11.59pm.

•The winner will be chosen by random and contacted by email.

•The winner will be informed within 14 days of the closing date and will need to respond within 7 days or a new winner will be chosen.

•The winner’s name will be available on request.

•The prize will be given direct from Insect Lore, allowing for delivery timescales.

•Entry to this confirms that participants have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

•Growing Family’s decision is final.

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

Comments

  66. Debbie says

    Followed, tweeted @dartzie62
    Followed Facebook: Debbie Santowski Mac
    Followed Pinterest: Debbie
    Followed Instagram: dartzie62

    Thanks for the competion!

    Reply

  67. bobbie minthull says

    I’ve tweeted and followed on all platforms. what a great idea. would love this for my grandmonsters who are fascinated by insects

    Reply

  99. jodie yorke says

    Followed Twitter jodandrob

    •Followed Facebook jodandrob

    •Followed on Instagram jodandrob

    •Followed on Pinterest jodandrob

    Reply

  140. MichelleD says

    I’ve tweeted, followed on Twitter, Followed on Facebook and Followed on Pinterest!
    @michellecdag
    Michelle Dagger

    Reply

  198. Leanne Bell says

    Following Insect Lore on Pinterest – My 5 year old has been learning about bugs, so this would be fantastic to carry on the learning at home 🙂 x

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

diy tools
Aragon Cast Iron Fire Basket adding sticks
barcelona

AMAZON ASSOCIATE

 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright Growing Family 2015. Design by Stacey Corrin.