About Me

Ryan Malone is the owner of The Hatchery Butterfly Farm, a privately-owned small business located in the Riverside area of Wichita, KS. His focus is on breeding and rearing butterflies native to Kansas and surrounding regions. When not specifically breeding butterflies, Ryan is teaching about pollinators, establishing native habitats, and promoting ecologically friendly gardening practices. He hopes that by providing accessible and educational experiences for people of all ages that he may garner support for our struggling pollinators.

Ryan’s love for butterflies stems from his love for plants. Prior to his current profession, Ryan worked as the Head Caretaker of Aly’s Blooms Flower Farm and as a full-time gardener at Botanica, The Wichita Gardens. At the flower farm, he found ways in which very hungry caterpillars — commonly seen as agricultural pests — could co-exist with the flower farming industry. His responsibilities at the Wichita botanical gardens, which attracted an estimated 220,000 guests annually, included running and maintaining the Cox Butterfly House, the display greenhouse, and the Milburn Aquatic Collection.

Over the years, Ryan has had many opportunities to help others play, explore, celebrate, and connect to world around them. As a guest speaker for the KAIRS K-12 Teacher’s Conference, Ryan taught educators ways to incorporate butterflies into their lesson plans by establishing native habitats at their schools. Ryan has also been known to “nerd out” by giving caterpillar tours through the local botanical garden to middle and high school classrooms. From late spring to early fall Ryan and his butterflies can be seen at the Old Town Farm & Art Market — Wichita’s Favorite Farmer’s Market — offering butterfly life cycle kits, native larval host plants, cut flower bouquets, framed specimens, butterfly releases, and more. On top of that, he supplies butterflies regularly to Next to Nature Farm in Leavenworth County, Kansas and to the Cox Butterfly House at Botanica, The Wichita Gardens.

Should you have any questions/inquiries, you can contact Ryan via email at thehatcherybutterflies@gmail.com or follow him on social media at https://linktr.ee/thehatcherybutterflyfarm.