Odd mass monarch butterfly behavior: check your local pop!

I didn't know a number of broods or life span but I remember having learned that the butterfly hatched in Maine doesn't fly all the way to Mexico, then all the way back to Maine again.
Not sure how accurate this is but it explains the efficiency thing a little better.

One feature of nature is that the growing season in the Southern part of the migration starts earlier, when the monarchs are in that area and can lay eggs on those new milkweeds. At that time up North it's too cold for them to even fly and there are no grown milkweeds to lay eggs on, or flowers to feed on.
So I presume that as the head North in Spring, they choose to raise their family in the first town that has the resources they need.
Then their kids head North again and do the same 500- 1000 miles further, etc.
I don't know if they breed again going South, since milkweeds would not be in season any more, but maybe in some Southern areas they grown a second batch of plants later in the season from the seeds dropped by the first milkweed cycle?

A reason their having multiple generations on one migration makes sense to me is that the little buggers just plain wear out!
An older monarch commonly has wings with all the blush worn off, tattered edges, and even chunks of wing missing.
The first round of monarchs that arrive in early summer would all look this way if they had just flown up from Mexico and were that old.
But most arrivals look pretty fresh and in good condition.
So I'd presume that their worn out great grandparents wrapped up a hard life down South somewhere on the way North.
I don't have much for pics of worn out monarchs but I'll post one that's a bit worn I got this morning.

 

Here’s a pretty well worn monarch dining on my deck this morning.
Really not in bad shape compared to some really ragged ones I’ve seen.




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So the first three hatched this morning, inciting my wife to burst out shouting my name in excitement like a little kid.
That alone was worth the effort.
Here’s on that hasn’t fully expanded its wings yet, which are tiny when it first hatches, but I missed that by a few minutes.



Here it is with wings fully expanded but still wet, sort of like wet cloth that has no structural integrity.
iPhone pics not great but easy to post.



Here’s one fully dry and getting antsy to go outside.
They’re not tame but not afraid of being handled either, if you get them at the right time.
Delivered to the flower patch.




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Maybe five hours after cracking out of the chrysalis, fully dry and able to support itself.



Climbing aboard the next train of life!




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The first two pictured are females but one is a male pictured here.
For some reason he fluttered down to my cargo shorts on the way out of the house, before I put him on a flower.
You can tell he’s a male by the two wing spots near the bottom of his body.
I had to apologize for not having any cargo shorts in his size.






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One more this morning, got a pic a little earlier when the wings were smaller, not at the first cracking out though.
You can see the body is fat full of the fluid that gets pumped through the wings to expand them..



A few hours later ready to go.



Put her on some blooming liatris.




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