I'm relatively new to Maya so haven't delved into MEL yet. I did manage to do it though. Here is what I did:

I set the wings in their starting position and set a keyframe. Next I positioned each wing to their emd point (left wing 50 and right wing 130) and set a second keyframe. Finally I returned the wings to their original position and created a 3rd keyframe.

With the Bee selected, open the graph editor (Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor), go to Curves > Post Infinity> Cycle. The to move the Bee around while it's wings are flapping, I just grouped the Bee parts (wings, body, head) and keyframed as usual. To slow the wings down just space the keyframes out on the timeline.

Might not be the best way but it's done the job. Hope this helps someone else looking for the same thing at some point.

Thanks for your help
Mike