Now through April 30, 2019, head to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids to see the nation’s largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibit. Every March and April, the Fred & Dorothy Fichter Butterflies Are Blooming exhibition is an opportunity for attendees to stroll amongst thousands of freely flying and freshly hatched tropical butterflies. More than 60 species of butterflies from Asia, Africa, and Central and South America will emerge daily from chrysa

Studying the behavior of various bee species and their habitat activity in restored prairies is the research of Sean Griffin, Michigan State University PhD candidate. For more than a decade Griffin has studied wild bees and habitats across the US including the tall grass prairie of the Nachusa Grasslands in Illinois and currently at the restored native prairie at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. Sean Griffin (right) talking about the different types of bees he has collected

Since there is no peeking in a hive until the outside temperature reaches a minimum of 65 F, one might wonder how honey bees are surviving the winter temperatures like the -18 F to 38 F swing during the January 31 to February 4 weather roller coaster. “The cluster of bees gets tighter,” explains Dennis McGahan, beekeeper and owner of Mike’s Apiaries in Vicksburg. With 30 years of beekeeping experience, McGahan says he has tried many techniques to winterize his hives over the