When Lightning Bugs Light Up the Night, It's a Sign of a Healthy Ecosystem Few sights capture the feeling of summer quite like watching lightning bugs drift through the evening air. As the sun sets and the sky begins to darken, tiny flashes of greenish-yellow light begin to appear across fields, gardens, and wooded edges. For many of us, these glowing insects are tied to childhood memories, running barefoot through the grass, catching fireflies in a jar, and watching them bli

Why Clover Is One of the Most Important Plants for Honey Bees Take a walk through a Wisconsin neighborhood in late spring or early summer and you'll likely see clover growing throughout lawns, roadsides, parks, and pastures. While many homeowners view clover as a weed, beekeepers often see it differently. Clover is one of the most valuable forage plants available to honey bees and many other pollinators. Despite its common appearance, it plays an important role in supporting

Does Roundup Harm Bees? What Beekeepers and Scientists Are Learning As beekeepers, we spend a lot of time thinking about the health of our bees. We watch the weather, monitor food stores, plant pollinator-friendly habitat, and pay close attention to changes in the landscape around our apiaries. One question we hear often is: Does Roundup® harm honey bees? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. While Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, was designed to kil

What Happens Inside the Hive After Dark It’s one of those questions that sounds simple at first: Do bees actually sleep? Considering how active honey bees are during the spring and summer months, it can seem like the answer would be no. A healthy hive is constantly moving. Bees are cleaning, feeding larvae, building comb, guarding entrances, processing nectar, and flying from flower to flower. From sunrise to sunset, the colony feels almost nonstop. But the answer is yes, bee