Butterfly Pavilion

I agree with all the recommendations for this product. But first warning, which I overlooked, is that it does not arrive with the actual caterpillars yet - was disappointing for my 11 year old who was waiting excitedly for the product after saving her pocket money. This is for good reason though. The product comes with a voucher which you use to order your caterpillars - we did this online and it was very straight forward. This gives you a change to make sure you are around for the amount of time to care for the caterpillars and butterflies and also if giving for a gift, to ensure that the recipient will be able to order the caterpillars for a time that is suitable.

We had a couple of queries from an over worried new young entemologist which were quickly cleared up by the very helpful staff at insect lore and it is now 4 weeks later and we have butterflies - it is summer now though so this process has been very quick.

When you receive the caterpillars, you simply unpack them and watch as they grow fatter and fatter. When they become coccoons, this is the tricky bit as you have to transfer them to the butterfly net with a very steady hand. the coccoons are attached to the liner of the lid of the container in which they arrived and this liner was not intact when we had to move our coccoons so it is a delicate operation and we used pins to pin the liner to the net - (we tried the tape option first but this did not work).

Butterflies are one day old today so much excitement in decorating their net with leaves and we are feeding them with oranges. So far so good.

Would recommend this product. Although it is a bit pricey you can use the net again and re-order more caterpillars. Would be suitable from age 4 onwards I would think as all children would find this process fascinating - has been excellent for mum & dad too.

I bought the butterfly pavilion which promised 10 caterpillars for my reception class to enjoy during their Growing project.
Despite the farce that arose around the initial delivery of the butterfly farm I would still recommend it as a learning project in school.
The first pavillion arrived without the promised certificate and we were unable to claim the caterpillars. Amazon replaced the product without question and a postage paid returns voucher. The second pavillion arrived intact and I duly went on line to Insect-Lore to order the caterpillars to find that only two were valid with the voucher code given on the certificate. I emailed Insect-Lore who said there was a problem at their printers who were putting wrong codes on the vouchers. They rectified the certificate for me and 10 live caterpillars duly arrived.
The process of growing caterpillars to butterfly can take 5 - 7 weeks. Had the initial delivery been complete we would have butterflies by now, however, due to all the delays it is now probable that the caterpillars will make their cocoons next week and emerge during the half term break. Although the children are excitedly watching the caterpillars grow in their pots the whole experience will be lost if they should make their cocoons or emerge during the holidays.
I would recomend that should you order this product you allow plenty of time for errors beyond your control.

Bought this for my 5 year old grandaughter. It arrived well packed and prompt and ordering the caterpillars was simple. They have now started to develop into Butterfies and Ellie is intrigued and excited, phoning us regularly with updates on their progress.
We intend to purchase more caterpillars throughout the season as it has become a taliking point amongst visitors plus has kept Ellie occupied and educated.
Excellent value and would recommend for any child.