08/10/2026
Your squash patch runs a small hotel.
Squash flowers open at first light and wilt shut by afternoon, and the males of one particular bee — the squash bee, older than honeybees on this continent — figured out the arrangement long ago. At dusk he crawls into a closing blossom and lets it fold around him. Warm room, pollen breakfast, doors open at dawn.
The females, meanwhile, are why you have squash at all: they work the flowers at sunrise, hours before honeybees arrive, and they work nothing else. No squash bees, thinner harvest.
So tomorrow morning, before the heat comes up, tip open one closed blossom and look inside. If a small gold bee blinks back at you, close the door gently. He earned the room. 🐝