Counting sheep might put you to sleep, but counting bees is exciting work, say the ecologists organizing a nationwide citizen science project to survey the nation’s bees.

More than 65,000 Americans have signed up to plant sunflowers and watch the bees that come to them as part of the Great Sunflower Project, which was masterminded by San Francisco State University biologist Gretchen LeBeun.

Over the last month, participants in the project received a packet of Queen Lemon sunflower seeds from LeBeun, and the first bee sightings are beginning to trickle in from around the country.

“What you do is you stand out there and you time how long it takes for five bees to visit,” LeBeun said, up to thirty minutes.

Then watchers report their results on the website or by mail. Soon participants will be able to upload time-stamped digital photographs to vouch for their observations.