# I have never had so many cucumbers on at one time.



## Westhill

Awesome. We had that with our blueberries this year. Loaded!


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## Cyan

It's turning out to be a good year for them here in PA as well. Last year was the first year I tried pickling using a canner and store bought pickling mixes. I obviously need to work on that. lol But, this year I'm going to try some refrigerator recipes that look kind of interesting.


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## aunt betty

If you are going to make pickles DO NO FORGET THE PICKLE CRISP.
It's in the canning section and your pickles will be much better if they are crispy and crunchy.


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## dsegrest

My garden has been fantastic since I got bees. The drought is not helping much this year. I'm glad my bees are making cucumbers and squash, because they sure aren't making much honey.


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## BeeBop

Yes! First year with bees for me and my little vegetable garden is just alive with the sound and motion bees. I've never seen so many lemon cucumbers on the vines as we have this year.

Most people would be annoyed if there was 100 bees in their hot tub, but since my hot tub is full of Crane melons I consider it a good thing.


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## BHH

Yeah my bees went nuts on the lemon cucumbers. Can't eat them fast enough, they keep making more.


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## Lorahv

How far from your gardens are your hives? I was hoping to put my hives right in my garden, but then read that bees will "ignore" plants that are within 10 - 20' of the hive. One of the main reasons I wanted to get my own hives was to increase the yield in my garden


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## B Steve B

Lorahv said:


> How far from your gardens are your hives? I was hoping to put my hives right in my garden, but then read that bees will "ignore" plants that are within 10 - 20' of the hive. One of the main reasons I wanted to get my own hives was to increase the yield in my garden


Just noticed this today.

Our hives are right in the back of our garden. Last year, we planted lemon cucumbers and crookneck squash right in front of the hive - about five feet away. Bees were all over them....and the beans, and the tomatillos, and pretty much everything. Everything we planted was more productive than it ever was before we had bees - well, since the neighboring farmland was turned into subdivisions, anyway. Our entire vegetable garden is within about 25' or less of the hive stand. The only thing that seems to be getting ignored is the gardener.


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## ecobeeremoval

Nice to hear that all these stuff from your guys. It will helps honey bees to make large amount of honey.


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## mlanden

Did I hear correctly at my local bee assoc. that bees will starve if they only have cuke blooms to work? Maybe they can't use the pollen/nectar? I may research that. I'm sure, though, that you have lots more than just cucumbers .....


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## trishbookworm

Just like we need a balanced source of protein (like, not just beans, or not just peanut butter), so it is with bees and pollen. Pollen is how baby bees go from egg to bee... sure nectar/honey is important, but pollen equally so. And a varied source of pollen is key.

However, unless your hive is in the middle of 5 acres of cukes (or whatever monocrop you might have), you don't have to worry about them having too few sources of pollen! They can travel 1 mile away, which includes a huge area in 1 mile squared. Just take a 10 min walk (that's 1/2 mile)! in every direction and catalog what could be accessed by YOUR bees! They are amazing.


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## mlanden

trishbookworm said:


> Just like we need a balanced source of protein (like, not just beans, or not just peanut butter), so it is with bees and pollen. Pollen is how baby bees go from egg to bee... sure nectar/honey is important, but pollen equally so. And a varied source of pollen is key.
> 
> However, unless your hive is in the middle of 5 acres of cukes (or whatever monocrop you might have), you don't have to worry about them having too few sources of pollen! They can travel 1 mile away, which includes a huge area in 1 mile squared. Just take a 10 min walk (that's 1/2 mile)! in every direction and catalog what could be accessed by YOUR bees! They are amazing.


Thx for the reply; what I'm thinking about, though, is if cuke pollen/nectar is nutritionally useless to bees. At the assoc. meeting, I recall the old-timers saying that most flowers -- of whatever variety -- are fine for the girls, but cuke blooms (while the plants benefit from the pollination) do them no good. I've also heard that Carolina jasmine -- of which I have lots -- is actually toxic for them (!?). This is mostly an academic question ....


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## Johnnycake

RE: Cucumbers. Me too! I was just in the garden today and saw honey bees on my cucumber flowers while I was collecting some to eat and took notice. My cucumbers are so prolific I can't believe it. Best I've seen - it must be my new bees.

Cyan, I hear you on the water shortage in PA though...


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## dudelt

Since adding bees to the property, our apple crop has exploded. One very old apple tree produced so many apples this year that it snapped the top 15 feet off due to the excessive weight. The apples are still quite small and we have been thinning hoping to not break off more branches.


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## MariahK

Loravh, mine are in my garden and they work everything, including things 4 ft in front of the hive


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## aunt betty

Honeybees attract other pollinators. There has to be at least 10 species of them in my yard at any given time. 
Right now we have lemon balm in bloom and some sort of odd little black bees are working the heck out of it. My honeybees are ignoring it.


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## B Steve B

So that's it? I was wondering why we suddenly started seeing so many different kinds of bees here after we started keeping bees. I thought it was just us being more observant, but it seems like too much to miss.

Mlanden - I have a hard time believing that the bees would work cucumbers so heavily if they were getting nothing beneficial from them. We have a variety of flowers growing next to our veggies. Some of those are completely ignored by the honeybees (I try to talk the wife into replacing them, but...  ). I think the bees know what they're doing.


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