Talk:The birds and the bees

The history of the phrase "The birds and the bees"
Can anyone provide a reliable reference and write a section on the history of this phrase? Mattabat 11:45, 25 April 2006 (UTC) they are BUMS — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.11.162.193 (talk) 01:20, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

The real story
Is there an actual story about birds and bees relating to sexual intercourse, or is this just a euphemism/fable?

Blakeops 00:52, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * ... And how does the complete story go? --Abdull 08:36, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Take a look at this --Doudo 22:14, 2 September 2006 (UTC)


 * And it still doesn't tell the story. I want to tell a child about the birds and the bees -- what exactly is it that I say, and how eventually does the child understand what an intercourse is and that it is done both for fun and for reproduction?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.40.123.203 (talk) 06:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I always thought it had something to do with the concept that birds and bees can't mate with each other, and that only members of the same species can...or something. --SeizureDog 06:38, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Its all to do with interspecies sex

I had heard that bees were used as an example to demonstrate the mechanics of reproduction (as they pollinate flowers), and birds were used as an example to demonstrate love, marriage, and family (because of things like avian courtship behavior, and the way birds care for their young). B7T (talk) 04:22, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Needs research
I removed the following from the article (at the end of the Shakespeare quote discussion). It may or may not be correct, but it was written as commentary, and I couldn't see how to incorporate it without having the time to do the research and cite it.

[Not so. The "gilded" description probably refers to fruit flies, since, as most everyone has seen for themselves, these flies have a very shiny body, making them look "gilded".]

--Walt (talk) 11:26, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Extending this phrase
Several songs mention a lengthy form of this phrase in its lyrics: "The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees". The second paragraph in the article associates birds with femininity and bees with masculinity. Can this paragraph be extended to include all 4 parts of this phrase rather than just the first 2?? Georgia guy (talk) 21:04, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Thomas Carew: Original research?
Does the paragraph on Thomas Carew constitute original research? The phrase isn't actually used, it isn't used in the context of sexuality but rather symobolizes the change of seasons (the humble-bee is "waking", not being born or reproducing), and the reference is to the poem itself, not to a scholarly argument about how this fits in with "birds and the bees". Publik (talk) 18:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't think the poem is irrelevant—it's a popular idiom based on metaphors, so of course the earliest attested sources will be literary works. The problem is with the citation. I was doing research for a paper, and almost duplicated the article's citation. But I happened to be in the library of a major public research institution, so I went and pulled the Norton Anthology 6th edition Vol. I off the shelf to verify, and although the page number leads me to Thomas Carew's section, it's an elegy for John Donne. "The Spring" isn't in the Norton, although it can be found at the Poetry Foundation's website. Don't make up bad citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.2.54.110 (talk) 08:19, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Yahoo! Answers?
Is Y!A a reliable source? Also, the link seems to broken. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.54.40.203 (talk) 07:54, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
 * No it is not, but did they perhaps cite their sources? We could check there. 76.100.136.246 (talk) 10:43, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

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Meaning Section
Would it be helpful to have a definition or meaning section? Although the topic is all about the meaning, it would make it more organized.

--Janestring (talk) 00:01, 7 December 2023 (UTC)