Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Chris Hundley, left, and Michael Talesfore are tickled by the success of their butterfly farm, called Magical Beginnings.

Butterflies Everywhere

Magical Beginnings watches business take flight

By Shari Kaplan

Once one of Los Gatos' best-kept secrets, Magical Beginnings Butterfly Farms has much in common with its namesake insects. Just as an unassuming caterpillar spends time transforming within its chrysalis to emerge as a lovely butterfly, so Magical Beginnings has grown over its two-year existence to take wing as a successful and expanding business venture.

Magical Beginnings raises monarch butterflies for use at weddings, movie premieres, business openings and other special events.

Located above a business complex in the heart of downtown Los Gatos, the office of butterfly farmers Chris Hundley and Michael Talesfore--which includes a breeding cage, holding cages and lots of juicy milkweed plants for the hungry caterpillars--is as unassuming as its "livestock." Hundley and Talesfore also run a rural butterfly farm in Oroville, where they raise the insects and grow most of their milkweed.

It all began when Hundley and Talesfore--college graduates with jobs in the high-technology industry--realized their professions still left something to be desired. Both wanted jobs that offered more flexible schedules and more unusual work, and say they are more attracted to the natural world than the high-tech one.

"We thought we'd go into business together to do something unique and different, but we didn't know what that was," Talesfore recalls. Thanks to Hundley's subscription to The Wall Street Journal, they came across an article about Rick Mikula of Pennsylvania--a pioneer farmer of sorts--who's been raising butterflies to release at special occasions for about 20 years.

Corresponding and meeting with Mikula, Hundley and Talesfore learned what it takes to raise, feed and breed monarchs and got some contact names and numbers.

"[Butterfly releasing] is a really hot item; we see it the same as the flower industry was about a hundred years ago. Now it's a new thing and seems like it's only going up," Talesfore says.

Illinois native Hundley and Santa Clara Valley native Talesfore both say they grew up seeing lots of butterflies flutter by flowers and meadows and feel bad about the insects' decline in numbers.

According to Talesfore, this is a result of droughts, cold temperatures and loss of habitat for milkweed, which is the only plant on which female monarchs lay their eggs and the only plant the caterpillars eat. Adult monarchs sip nectar from dozens of different flowers, but do not actually eat anything.

"Right now, if you look outside, you don't see monarchs flying around Los Gatos. Our goal is as soon as possible--as soon as next year--there'll be butterflies everywhere you look; that's how it used to be," Hundley says. "Los Gatos is a beautiful and great place for butterflies. The only thing it's missing is the milkweed."

"We're really trying to educate the community to grow nectaring plants in their backyards to attract butterflies, and to grow the host plant [that] monarch caterpillars eat," Talesfore says, adding that 17 varieties of milkweed grow in California and some are very attractive. In total, 130 species of the weed grow in the United States.

"All of the open areas in this valley are either tilled or fire burned, so there are no flowers and no host plants. So the last frontier is really your own back yard," Talesfore says.

So while some people are growing milkweed for future monarch generations, Hundley and Talesfore are busy raising the progenitors. Currently, most customers order butterflies--at $125 per dozen--to release at weddings and funerals. Small gift baskets containing flowering plants plus one butterfly ($30) or two butterflies and a chrysalis ($60) are also available.

Prior to release, Hundley and Talesfore carefully place the insects in triangular paper envelopes for transport. They explain that when the butterflies are kept in a cool, dark, confined environment, they enter a suspended animation of sorts, can go without food for several days and are not harmed.

The butterfly farmers are also working on getting more corporate business for their butterflies, including company picnics, new product releases and movie premieres.

"Any occasion where you can use flowers, you can use butterflies," says Hundley, who explains that monarchs are among the best kinds of butterfly for this type of venture because they are large and hardy and seem to be more friendly and calm that many other species.

"Butterflies are the most natural alternative [to flowers] for any spectacle," adds Talesfore, who plans to have a butterfly release at his own wedding. He goes on to explain that balloon releases are dangerous because animals may eat the rubber and that rice thrown at weddings creates a slippery mess.

Los Gatan Scott Wallwork and his wife, Barbara, included two dozen butterflies in their outdoor wedding, which took place this summer at Barbara's parents' house in Ben Lomond. The butterfly release provided a "magical beginning."

"It was like the marker that ended the wedding ceremony and started the reception," Scott says of when family and friends released their flying friends on cue.

"It was exciting. There was a continuity to the crowd because they got to take part in it--having them as a part of the ceremony. And the kids thought it was the neatest thing in the world," adds Scott, who says that to this day, his wife's family still catches glimpses of the colorful insects around their home.

Butterflies have turned out to be especially spiritual at funerals, Hundley says. He explains that many people find inspiring symbolism in the monarchs' metamorphosis from a plain, ground-dwelling caterpillar to a carefree, beautiful animal that flies through the skies.

Hundley says he likes to share a Native American belief about butterflies with customers. Legend says that because butterflies cannot speak, if people make a wish upon releasing a butterfly, their wish will be carried upon its wings up to the heavens, where it will be granted.

One of Talesfore's favorite anecdotes comes from a client whose sister was killed in an airline crash. The family hiked into the Cascade Range, scattered the woman's ashes and then released two dozen butterflies.

"She said, 'You know, when we were all hiking down, we were all in a great mood and it was so neat to see all those butterflies,' " Talesfore recalls with a smile. "One butterfly followed them down the mountain and they felt connected, like that was her sister saying a last goodbye."

In order to procure so many butterflies, Hundley and Talesfore have studied the monarch lifecycle to learn what makes them tick--including reproductively. Pulling open the mesh around the mating cage, they point to a seemingly motionless butterfly pair oblivious to the human interruption. When monarchs pair up, they mate for up to 20 hours.

It generally takes 31 days for a monarch to go through the stages of egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and newly emerged adult butterfly. Within three or four days, the young adults are ready to mate.

"I think the hardest thing [about this business] is successfully raising the butterflies. It's not something that's easy to do. It takes a lot of time and skill. There's a lot more to it and a lot of variables that can go wrong," Hundley explains.

"In nature, 90 percent of the butterflies that go through the cycle never make it to adulthood. They get eaten by predators or something else happens to them. With us, more than 90 percent successfully make it," he adds.

Monarchs are the only North American butterfly that can "overwinter." California monarchs that are born in the late summer or autumn migrate to spots along the Pacific Coast, such as Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. There, huddled under the shelter of trees, rocks or caves, they go into a type of hibernation through the winter. Come spring, they "wake up" and can mate several more times. Butterflies born in the spring, however, generally do not live long enough to overwinter.

For Hundley and Talesfore, this winter brings a respite from butterfly farming in which they will travel to Mexico for an international conference on butterflies. Mexico is also the spot where millions of East Coast monarchs overwinter. In January, the pair will travel to Costa Rica with Rick Mikula to learn about other, more exotic types of butterflies.

And then they're back to Los Gatos for more butterfly farming.

"The caterpillars eat milkweed, have 16 legs and no wings, while the butterflies drink nectar, have wings and six legs. It's quite a metamorphosis," Talesfore says of the "magic" of his profession.

"People who remember seeing butterflies when they were little but don't see them anymore are going to start seeing them in Los Gatos again," he says.

For more information about Magical Beginnings Butterfly Farms of Los Gatos, call 395-2358.

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