Not enough bees

[leon richard]

I have a lack of honey bees as I’m sure many people do. So I try to cross pollinate my yellow squash myself. The problem this yr is I have tons of flowers but there r few if any female which of course r needed to be pollinated by the male flowers. What is my issue ??

 

[DirtMechanic]

I have a lack of honey bees as I’m sure many people do. So I try to cross pollinate my yellow squash myself. The problem this yr is I have tons of flowers but there r few if any female which of course r needed to be pollinated by the male flowers. What is my issue ??

Most likely the plants are new, and male flowers can come first. They usually show female flowers once enough males are available to pollinate.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Varoa, it's a mite that infests the bee's breathing tubes and suffocates them, and the reason I gave up beekeeping.

 

[leon richard]

Most likely the plants are new, and male flowers can come first. They usually show female flowers once enough males are available to pollinate.

At first yes but the lack of female flowers were much worse as time went on. Plants were beautiful full of flowers but again few if any female flowers

 

[Esther Knapicius]

I have a lack of honey bees as I’m sure many people do. So I try to cross pollinate my yellow squash myself. The problem this yr is I have tons of flowers but there r few if any female which of course r needed to be pollinated by the male flowers. What is my issue ??

contact a bee person, see if he can re-locate a hive on your property.

 

[DirtMechanic]

At first yes but the lack of female flowers were much worse as time went on. Plants were beautiful full of flowers but again few if any female flowers

Try adding a little P. and K too.

 

[headfullofbees]

At first yes but the lack of female flowers were much worse as time went on. Plants were beautiful full of flowers but again few if any female flowers

Don't panic they'll come.
ALL cucurbits do this.

 

[gary350]

I don't see many honey bees unless I plant something that attracts them. The yard is loaded with white clover I hate to mow it down but sometimes I have too. There are certain flowers that you can plant to attract bees.

 

[ChrisH]

I see honey bees now and then on the clover in my yard, but we do have a lot of bumble bees here. They're good pollinators and spend a lot of time on my plants when they flower.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Bumble bees are great pollinators, they will work later and in much worse weather conditions than honey bees. It was trying to exploit this by crossing them with Asian bees that introduced varroa to Europe. Wild honey bees are extinct because of it here as far as I know, it is only the managed hives that survive. They have a range of about a mile and a half, so in a place like West Sussex where I live there are usually some about.

 

[EthosSeedCompany]

I interplant a lot of perennials and annual flowers in my garden to attract pollinators and maintain a healthy local population of native bees, wasps and flies, etc. Honeybees are wonderful, but are not native to America and are only a portion of all the wonderful pollinators we can rely on. Providing a food source as well as habitat is a good way to help foster insect population in and around your garden.

I noticed this year we have a significant drop in honeybees on my property as well as other pollinators. I just hope the new neighbor aren't spraying for each and every crawling and flying creatures around in the hopes of getting a perfectly manicured lawn. We're in the countryside here, but we have lots of new "city people" moving in and they don't seem to understand the harm in spraying their lawns against insects.

Here are some of the pollinator friendly plants I grow around the garden:

Yarrow: flowers are attractive to a range of pollinators and the lace foliage acts as a habitat to ladybug
Bee Balm (monarda): very attractive to pollinators, namely butterflies and bees. Hummingbirds also love those
Catmint or Nepeta: very attractive to bumblebees and other bees as well as butterflies
Echinacea: slow to grow but super drought resistant and great for beneficial insects
Calendula: this one is great as it grows fast, attracts natives bees in throve and repels pests.
Sweet Alyssum: start from seed and let spread around. It's a great ground cover and feeds the pollinator
Chamomile: I keep an entire 4X4 bed of this and let it reseed year after year. Ladybugs breed in there and it also attracts pollinator

There are more, I'm sure, but those are a few I never miss. The first 4 are perennials, so they are a great investment but won't flower much in the first year (except catmint), so it would be good to add the annuals as well. Don't be tempted to use the exotic annuals sold in nurseries as they are pretty, but don't provide much for the insect population.

That's it! Happy Gardening!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I notice bees and butterflies most on Verbena Bonariensis in the summer. Michealmass daisy is great for autumn, and when I was a bee keeper the late honey flow from ivy was noticeable.
I told a farmer who was cursing dandylions once that they were good for pollinators, he said it was nonsense, he walked his orchard every morning and had never seen a bee on one, probably perfectly true, they won't produce nectar until the sun is high in the sky just before mid-day sometimes nature can catch you out.