"In that one story they simply won't forget, at least they never knew my name" This article is about a subject whose real name is unknown, and is known only by a title, nickname, alias or description

“	I hear you don't like bees? I think you need a far tougher sentence. Do us all a favor. Buzz off.	„
	― Rose Red to Mister Sunflower, Fairest #32 — "Glamour Day: Chapter Six of The Clamour for Glamour"

The bees are insect Fables that reside at the Farm in upstate New York. One of them first appears as a background character in Fables #8 — "The Pirates of Upstate New York: Part Three of Animal Farm," while the rest debut in Fables #51 — "Big and Small."

History

Background

The bees live in their own Beehive in the center of a cul-de-sac on the Farm, called André Gardens, along with Alderman Poppy, the Dormouse Juggler, Mister Sunflower, Old Maid Hollyhock and Snapdragon. The swarm is lead by the Queen Bee.^[1]

Goldilocks' revolution

One of the bees aligns itself Goldilocks' rebels in their scheme to overthrow the human residents of Fabletown. It is present when the another recruit, Rose Red, arms herself in a cave.^[2]

New leadership

A few years later, the bees are seen zooming past Cinderella following her transformation into a mouse on the Farm.^[3]

The glamour crusade

During the preparations for the glamour Lottery, the Beehive in André Gardens is vandalized, leaving a distraught Queen Bee and the rest of the bee swarm without a home. Mister Sunflower suggests that the bees could have destroyed their own hive as an insurance scam, but he and the other non-bee residents of the garden are immediately made prime suspects. According to Mister Sunflower, Snapdragon refused to yield her nectar to the bees; the position of the Beehive casts unwanted shade on Old Maid Hollyhock's regimented flower row; the bees have stopped the Dormouse Juggler from performing because her show attracted the attention of birds who flocked to watch the show, including Woodrow, a woodpecker who kept tapping at the bees' hive to show his approval; Alderman Poppy's sleep beneath the poppy shade is often interrupted by the bees' buzzing; and they tease Sunflower's own face every time he turns to the sun. As Wilfred and Clara question Snapdragon, she has a bee buzzing around her. The talking plant admits that she dislikes "those damn bees," but she always fights them fairy and they duel one on one.^[1]

Meanwhile, old Maid Hollyhock believes that the Dormouse Juggler should be the prime suspect, saying that the animosity between the bees and the Dormouse Juggler lies with her avian devotees, and that the avid woodpecker who tapped his approval all over their hive was the greatest offender. However, when the investigators suggest that Woodrow may have demolished the hive with his powerful beak, the woodpecker says he's innocent, while the Dormouse Juggler points out that had Woodrow done it, half the Farm would have heard the commotion.^[1]

Shortly afterward, Clara and Wilfred gather all the suspects and unveil a shocking truth: the theft of one of the glamours and the destruction of the hive are intertwined, and the guilty party resides within André Gardens. Clara correctly states that all of them have a clear motive for revenge against an annoying neighbor, and the Queen Bee suggests that they thrown them all in jail, with one of her fellow bees explaining that they have never been welcome there. According to Wilfred, the criminal needed a place to temporarily stash his stolen goods, and Clara destroys the remains of the beehive, exposing the hidden treasure buried beneath it. Wilfred reveals that Mister Sunflower is the culprit: Once the hive was destroyed, the andromorphic plant hurried to the Pumpkin House and snatched a glamour. He then hid and waited for the swarm of bees to gather at the Farm office, ready to report the attack. With no one around, he buried the glamour under the rubble of the hive.^[1]

Sunflower is taken into custody and is sentenced to community service, beginning with constructing a brand-new beehive. One month later, as he diligently works on the hive, the bees fly over him. He brusquely instructs them to "buzz off," clarifying that he is currently focused on the new hive and they will receive it in due time.^[4]

On the highly anticipated day of the Lottery, Sunflower accidentally knocks over all the neatly arranged potions and their corresponding glamours. Due to Sunflower's mishap, not only are the animal winners given glamours, but their chaperones are completely transformed into animals, connected to the original Fable forms of the animals they accompany. The Farm's leader, Rose Red, believes he deserves a harsher punishment. She calls upon her magical abilities to enlarge the bees, making them tower over Sunflower and making him cower in fear.^[5]

Appearances

Fables Fables #8 (first appearance) Fables #51

Fairest Fairest #30 Fairest #31 Fairest #32

Original source

The Queen Bee is based on the titular character of the Grimm fairy tale of the same name, while the bees as group are based on the characters from Little Blossom, an obscure collection of poems from 1884, written and illustrated by the Victorian artist R. André; more specifically the poems "Mister Sunflower" and "The Battle of the Bee and the Snap Dragon." André Gardens, where the bees and the rest of the characters from the book live, are named after the author.

The poem "Mister Sunflower" goes:

In your dress of brown and yellow
What a stiff-necked, long legged fellow!
Must you stare, although the bees
Settle on your face and tease?
Can't you turn your big flat head
Till the sun has gone to bed?

"The Battle of the Bee and the Snap Dragon" goes:

"Come, Snap-dragon!" says
the Bee,
"Give your honey up to me!
'Though you threaten to devour;
I will never yield to flower!'

Snap then, Dragon, snap at me!
Like a new Saint George I'll be —
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! and victory!

References