What does the phrase "the birds and the bees" actually mean?

Question

I mean I know it has to do with sex education, but what significance to birds and bees have?

Answer 1

Birds and bees are (or were) part of most children's experience and their sexual and family activities are readily observable. So, most children have the experience of seeing a bee pollinate a flower. It is a good example of basic "sexual" propagation that children can understand. Likewise with birds - the whole laying eggs, sitting on the nest, baby birds being born, being fed by their mother - it's shorthand for the whole reproductive cycle, which can be extrapolated to humans. I know it's sort of lame, but personally, I'd rather have my children learn about the "birds and the bees" than learn about sex through what they see on TV. And despite what Wikipedia has to say, it is only clumsy and inept as a metaphor if the person doing the explaining is clumsy and inept!

Answer 2

"The Birds and the Bees" (sometimes expanded to "the birds, the bees and the butterflies" or "the birds, the bees, the flowers, and the trees")

--->It is a commonly used phrase (which has become somewhat of a cliché) which refers to clumsy or inept attempts at sex education for children or adolescents, such as the use of euphemisms or symbols to describe sexual behaviour or body parts. A discussion about "the birds and the bees" may therefore involve references to nature (ie. animals and plants) without actually describing human biology or providing any useful insight.

The phrase is said to have its origins in a folk tale, whose exact source is unknown, that reportedly became popular in Southern Africa (probably Namibia) around the turn of the last century. It tells the story of a colony of bee-eater (Merops pusillus) birds laying their eggs after a meal of honeybees.

Or possibly derived from Kamadeva, Hindu god of love that is accompanied by a selection of Birds and Bees at all times.

Answer 3

ova and sperm