Kunst-blumen/ futter schmetterlingen

What sort of fake-flowers does one use?

Plastic Flower Fresia-Type

What colors are the best? Red-yellow-blue

Makes no difference. Lead them to the artificial flower with carnation (Nelke)

What is a good way to feed day-time butterflies?

A mixture of 1 part honey and 9 parts water

Has one experience with artificial light??
Is it possible to get butterflies active with artificial light?

It is possible. Use a reflector-bulb. Most daylight butterflies need a temperature of 30 to 35 degrees.

Best wishes

Juergen

Hi,

I had good response to fake sunflowers used for feeding with honey. The problem with funugs remains unsolved.

Hi Filip,

if possible I prefer natural flowers to feed adult butterlies. They are bought relatively cheap in any garder center and will last nearly a whole season. You can use lavendula, Thyme or any nectar rich flower. This you can judge easily, if there are some bees or butterflies in the garden center.

In early spring or late fall, when there are not enough natural flowers for my butterfly-green house, I ad some fake flowers. A mixture of honey and water is toppled right onto the flower. In an moist athmosphere you can use pure honey as the honey is "hygroscopic". That means, it will be diluted by the water out of the air. Beware not to present to much honey as large droplet could stick to the butterflies like glue.

Because fake flowers can get mouldy, which can get a bit costly, I substituted them sometimes with small parts of bright yellow cotten. For the butterflies this is quite the same.

Good luck, Holger

Hello!

Please let me answer a second time, as I am not agree 100% with the other breeders answers. I would never feed pure honey, always a solution of honey and water in a concentration of 1 : 10 down to 1 : 30, depends on the species. Pure honey can block the trunk of the butterfly.
Certainly feeding with living flowers is native. But most of the time you will not have enough blooms to feed a maximum. For example, you have to feed a fertilized female 2 or 3 times a day with honeywater to get a maximum of eggs and let her live the longest.
And another point: honey and honeywater spoiles very fast. You have to renew the filling of your artificial flowers every day and clean them efficient before!!!

Best wishes

Juergen