Steve writes:
Female flowers are attached to the end of a miniature cucumber. Some
varieties produce a bunch of male flowers before they even open the
first female flower. I think you will find that the female flowers come
one at a time.

Cucumbers can be infuriatingly slow to start setting. I think part of
the blame can be attributed to the small size of each blossom: the bees
just don't pay them much attention when there are bigger blooms nearby
offering much bigger pollen rewards. Only when there are vast numbers of
flowers on the cucumber do bees become interested. So I recommend that
the impatient gardener pick a couple of male flowers and gently rub them
around inside each open female flower to carry out the essential
pollination. Do this early in the morning and keep it up each day until
you find yourself competing with the bees! That way you won't waste the
first lot of female flowers.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)