# Who are 'the Birds and the Bees'....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 3, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079 "2000-03-03T15:27:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Occam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Occam)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/1 "2000-03-03T15:27:00Z")
and what do they have to do with sex?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/2 "2000-03-03T15:59:00Z")
“Well, let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees…and a thing called love.”
## Didn’t that expression come from the song? Or, vice versa?
“Life is hard…but God is good”
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/3 "2000-03-03T16:04:00Z")
Far older than the song, Adam…it was a cliche when I was a kid, before the song came out.
I’ve always understood it to mean the parents explaining sex to their children in the context of its natural expression… Birds lay eggs and sing to each other in courtship, bees fly from flower to flower and pollinate them in passing, now here’s how people do it…
I don’t have any proof of that; it’s simply how I’ve always interpreted it.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/4 "2000-03-03T16:10:00Z")
Thanks for the (partial) SD, Poly. =)
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### Author:  [@Surgoshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surgoshan)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/5 "2000-03-03T16:36:00Z")
Actually, The Birds and Bees were a notorious band in the fifties. They appealed to the teenage demographic by writing songs about teen rebellion and sex. So parents would try to set their fractious children straight, starting with “Now let me tell you about The Birds and Bees”.
* * *
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/6 "2000-03-03T19:24:00Z")
My mother told my father to tell me about the birds and the bees. He took me to Coney Island, pointed to a couple making love under the boardwalk, and said, “Your mother
wants you to know that the birds and the bees do the same thing.” – George Burns
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/7 "2000-03-03T21:46:00Z")
Gee, I got my lesson watching the cat in heat get nailed by all the toms in the area - including once in the center of my kitchen floor.
There’s a visual.
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### Author:  [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2000, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/8 "2000-03-03T22:36:00Z")
“Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it”
Cole Porter, I think, circa 1930. I don’t know if that’s the first birds/bees/sex reference, but it’s the earliest one I can think of.
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### Author:  [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/9 "2000-03-04T02:27:00Z")
Yep. _Let’s do it (Let’s Fall in Love)_, 1928 by Cole Porter:
> [@](#):
>
> Birds do it, bees do it
> Even educated fleas do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
>
> In Spain, the best upper sets do it
>
> Lithuanians and Letts do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
>
> The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it
> Not to mention the Fins
> Folks in Siam do it - think of Siamese twins
>
> Some Argentines, without means, do it
> People say in Boston even beans do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
>
> Romantic sponges, they say, do it
> Oysters down in oyster bay do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
>
> Cold Cape Cod clams, 'gainst their wish, do it
> Even lazy jellyfish, do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
>
> Electric eels I might add do it
> Though it shocks em I know
> Why ask if shad do it - Waiter bring me
> “shad roe”
>
> In shallow shoals English soles do it
> Goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it
> Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
Rather risque for 1928 and the double entendre is easily transformed into a euphemism for sex; ideal for use around the children.
I haven’t seen anything that traces the “birds and the bees” phrase to this song, but unless there is a record of its use before 1928, I think its a good candidate.
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### Author:  [@Nanno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanno)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-birds-and-the-bees/8079/10 "2000-03-04T02:33:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by ARG220:
> **Thanks for the (partial) SD, Poly. =)**