No buzy beez

I have had a lot of success with my pumpkin, long neck squash, and zucchini. The plants are healthy and there are plenty of blossoms. There is one problem though...I don't have any bees!!!! One day I was checking my pumpkins and I noticed that the baby pumpkins were shriveling up and dying before they got bigger than an inch around. I saw my squash doing the same thing. I did a little research and realized it was because the female blossoms were not being fertilized.

My alternative was too hand pollinate. Every morning I go to my bee-less backyard and check for new female and male blossoms.
MALE FLOWER

FEMALE FLOWER

The female flower also has a tiny fruit underneath it which you can't see in this picture.

To hand pollinate I carefully take the petals off of the male flower so as not to spill any of the visible pollen inside. Then I get as much of the male flower's pollen into the female flower.

I have just started this so hopefully it works I will let you know if it does.

Another thing I have done was open the side gate to my vegetable garden that leads to the front yard. In my front yard I have a wild flower garden which attracts a lot of bees. My theory is that if the bees see the flower's on my pumpkin plants then they will enter the side yard. I don't really know if that works or not because I really don't know how bees operate but it seems the bees just didn't know the veggie garden was there.

My husband suggested I kidnap a bee and take it to the veggie garden. Once in the veggie garden I release the bee so that he sees the pumpkin flowers and then goes back to the hive to report to the other bees. Sounds funny but hey that might work, I will use that as a last resort though I don't want to traumatize any bees haha