Growing Pumpkins..pollinating by hand

Mags brought this subject up..if your Pumpkin plants aren't making Pumpkins, it's because they haven't been pollinated. Bees usually do that for you as they buzz around with pollen stuck to their fuzzy feet, but, if you have few bees, for whatever reason..you can do it yourself. Just take a small brush, paint brush or a make up brush and swab it in a male flower and then swish it around in a female flower. The female flower has a bulbous growth under it, it's soft, like a yellow balloon. The male flower just has a stem. All Pumpkin plants have both male and female flowers on it. I thought that was good to know, and you can assure next years seeds are the favorite or prize winner you grew by pollinating from that plant and then tying the flower shut with string or tape so nothing else gets in there to cross pollinate and spoil the genetics. I've never cared enough to do that, I always like buying the new varieties of seeds, but, it's good to know and it shows you why you shouldn't let volunteer melons or squash grow into plants if you plan on eating them. They take up a lot of room and you could get some gross pollinated cross, like a melon-squash which would probably taste like crap.