Queen Bee.  Bee in your bonnet. Busy as a bee. The bees’ knees. The birds and the bees. Like bees to a honey pot. I only recently realised how many idioms, metaphors and symbols about bees we’ve adopted into the English language.  This realisation came when quite by accident in the space of a fortnight, I read two bee-themed books back-to-back:  The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau and The Bees by Laline Paull.