Inside a beehive, thousands of individuals work together.

No manager stands at the entrance.

No central authority gives every bee an assignment.

And yet, somehow, the colony organizes itself.

Workers gather food.

Nurses care for larvae.

Builders construct honeycomb.

Guards protect the entrance.

Scouts search for new resources.

And the colony constantly adjusts to changing conditions.

It almost looks like an economy.

But how does a society made of insects coordinate all of this?

In The Secret Economy Run by Bees, we explore the remarkable biology, communication, and collective behavior that allows a honeybee colony to function as a highly organized superorganism.

A colony has limited time and energy.

It must decide how many bees should gather necta ...