Altoona woman raises nearly 800 monarch butterflies

A Wisconsin woman has raised and released hundreds of monarch butterflies.

What started as a joke has become a 10-year hobby for Kris Gessert. About a decade ago, a friend of Gessert's plucked a milkweed leaf off the plant Gessert had just planted at her home, and on the bottom was a monarch butterfly egg.

When Gessert asked what she was supposed to do with it, her friend told her to raise it. Since that day, Gessert estimated she has raised and released at least 800 butterflies