Watching baby caterpillars grow and form into butterflies can take weeks and be quite tedious, but the day they hatch and fly free is a magnificent event – well worth the wait!   We order baby caterpillars and watch them eat and grow for about two weeks; then they attach to leaves or stems to form chrysalises where they’ll hide for about ten days, undergoing radical metamorphoses as their caterpillar parts break down and reform into monarch butterflies. WOW!