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Bees are not as busy as you think. A German neurobiologist finds the insects "often sit around the hive resting their wings and doing not much else" during the day. They sleep most of the night, says Prof. Randolf Menzel of the Free University of Berlin. And while they are intelligent and learn quickly, "Bees are not particularly hard-working," he concludes. On the contrary, says Glyn Davies, president of the British Beekeepers Association, bees aren't lazy - they're efficient. "It is a mistake to assume that a bee doing nothing is being uneconomic," he says. By conserving their energy they are being "very wise, and perhaps humans should try to follow their example instead of running about like headless chickens."

Source: The Daily Telegraph (London), June 18, 2004; see www.telegraph.co.uk