Topics and activities covered in Shady Oak's Seminar programs:
adult butterfly care, egg production, larvae production, pupae pinning, eclosing methods, lepidoptera disease identification and prevention, packing and shipping, artificial diet, hand-pairing, plant propagation and production, butterfly farm layout, permit application, marketing, farmer networking, sources for supplies, and more.

At a seminar, you wash eggs once, pin pupae, and perform a few other steps of farming if time allows. When time allows, you will check Monarch adult butterflies for OE and take time to look at our stored slides with OE. No matter which you choose (seminar or internship), we are determined that you’ll go home knowing that you can spot OE without problem (if you’ve not already figured it out!). We cover most of the topics that we cover in the internship week but in much less depth, due to the fact that there is less time.

Letter of Recommendation

Housing recommendations

Allergies and/or Special Needs:
If you have special needs, allergies, or food requests, please let us know before you arrive. We own a cat and we use bleach at the farm. If you have any special needs, we can better plan for your visit if you notify us as soon as we start discussing your plans to participate in either a seminar or the intership program.

Attire:
Jeans or modest shorts and shirt are preferred. Sandals are not comfortable with the ground that is in some of our greenhouses. Be aware that a farm is not a clean place and nice clothing may leave our farm stained or bleached in a few spots from disinfecting eggs. We will be glad to supply you with a disposable apron.

One-on-One Seminars and Interships are scheduled at your convenience. We are a working farm and although we raise butterflies year round, winter production is minimal. We schedule seminars and internships from the second week in March through the first week in November. We are prepared to have students Monday through Friday, occasionally on weekends. Please contact us with a short selection of dates that you are available to come to the farm and we will discuss availability that will best suit your needs.

If a spouse or /co-worker intends to take the seminar with you, we do not charge full price for each of you. Please email Edith for prices for additional guests.

On occasion we hold large seminars. These are announced in our newsletter one or more months before the seminar. If you wish to know if a large seminar is scheduled, please email us.

You are welcome to bring your camera to take photos as you visit and/or work at the butterfly farm.