The Birds and the Bees Children's Book Revised by E.M. Makins

Many songs feature this phrase, or an extended version of it 'the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees'.As they suck the honey from the blossoms some of the plant dust sticks to their legs and bodies, and as they go to another plant in search of sweets this is rubbed off and so the parts of the father and mother plant get together and the seed is made fertile.' Safe Counsel was reprinted at least 40 times from 1893 through 1930 and may have been widely enough repeated to have contributed to the euphemism, 'the birds and the bees.' Later she describes the father's role in reproduction like this 'Sometimes it is the wind which blows the pollen dust from one plant to the other, and sometimes it is the bees gathering honey from the flowers. The author tells her daughters 'when you discovered the tiny blue eggs in the robin's nest and I told you that wrapped in each shell was a baby robin that was growing there, kept warm by the mamma bird.' the narrative continues on in vague terms without actually describing sexual intercourse.

This piece was later picked up and included in Safe Counsel, a product of the Eugenics movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. 1849) wrote a section of a publication called The Story of Life which was published in 1909. and I the while, the sole unbusy thing, not honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.'' ĭr. The bees are stirring-birds are on the wing. Word sleuths William and Mary Morris hint that it may have been inspired by words like these from the poet Samuel Coleridge (1825): 'All nature seems at work.

The Birds and the Bees Children's Book Revised by E.M. Makins