Carol, the male flower is on a plain stem and the female flower has a tiny little melon at the back of the blosson. You have to get the pollen from the male flower to the female to pollinate it. In squash, this is really easy because they have big flowers, but small flowers are trickier. You can cut the male flowers off and try to transfer the pollen that way. With squash, I use a Q Tip to do this but I know in cucumbers the Q Tip is too big. I think it's going to depend on the size of your blooms.
I have not seen many bees this spring. I usually have a lot of bumble bees but not right now. My basil is starting to bloom and that usually attracts them so we'll see if any show up to help with the melons, cukes and squash.
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Michele
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