I see the weed commonly known as Queen Anne’s Lace growing abundantly along the sides of roads and in country fields where I live, and I’ve always wondered if honey bees are attracted to its nectar.
Queen Anne’s Lace (July 04, 2016.)
A little bit of online research tells me nope, they’re not too keen on it. I also read on a couple of beekeeping forums that when the bees do get desperate enough to collect nectar from Queen Anne’s Lace (also known as wild carrot), the resulting honey takes on a distinct aroma of body odour.
I can’t confirm this from my own experience. Nevertheless, I’ll file this one under Stuff That’s Good To Know.
Mmm nice.
Wow! I let some regular carrots flower in my garden, and my husband was saying last night how nice they smelled. Wish I’d read this first. Carrots are in the same family as Queen Anne’s lace, so maybe that wasn’t such a great idea.
You’d probably need large fields of Queen Anne’s Lace or carrot flowers to stink up the honey. Mixed in with all the other nectar the bees collect, the effect is probably negligible.
We have Queen Anne’s Lace everywhere around here and I rarely see the bees on it.