We think the life of an insect is short and insignificant. How much can you possibly experience during a lifespan of 6 weeks? And aren’t beehives the epitome of the ‘collective’ – thousands of worker bees in the service of a queen bee? The latest science, however, paints a completely different picture: bee colonies are not as homogeneous as we believe, but instead full of individuals with very different tasks, abilities, and even preferences. There are courageous, cowardly, and – yes – lazy bees. And every single bee faces the challenges of its life – finding flowers, fighting hornets, and finding the right place to build a nest. They show extraordinary intelligence and social skills: Bees help each other in danger and prefer to fly out into the world in the same teams. But they’d better not be surprised by a rain shower – a raindrop can be fatal… A bee’s life may last only 6 weeks, but for them that’s a lifetime.