> The bees get something off queen annes lace?

depends on the year but this year the bees were all over the variety we have
around here from morning till night. Other years the bees do not. Same with
goldenrod.

Our variety only rarely has the purple center which represents queen Annes
head . if I remember correctly Queen Anne could not produce an heir to the
throne and Henry the eighth had her head cut off. The white of the flowers
represents lace and the purple center her head. That's the story I was
always told. Through the years in Missouri we see less with the purple
center and more with only white flowers.

Bees choose floral sources and will fly over one to go to another. When bees
get used to a floral source its hard to change their minds. The reason we
ask orchards to mow the clover and dandelions under fruit trees and we bring
the hives in after bloom  is started.

found my bees working queen
> annes lace and I have a ton of it around, near and far from the hives.

With minor flows you have to check several times a day. The bees might only
work for a few hours.
The only strong flows I see in my area is tree bloom and clover. It's quite
a sight to be standing in a large outyard and the bees are hardly flying and
you wonder why you went to the trouble of moving bees then the entrances
start filling with bees. Not a swarm as most entrances are busy. Then the
air fills with bees and you marvel how so many bees can fill the air without
flying in to each other.

> What kind of frames are you running?

Frames from every maker. My own preference but I cull plastic and wired
frames into boxes to sell. have sold some pallets of drawn deep comb
recently. Please to not email to buy as I have several large beekeepers
wanting to buy pallets of drawn comb as I scale down. Ready to use deep
drawn comb without problems is easy to sell today. Junk is junk. Cull before
you advertise.

I cull comb hard and have burn barrels and a large burn area. New frames are
either Dadant or Mann lake wooden with wax coated plastic foundation.

I cull wired I find as I know those have been around awhile. Most the frames
I cull now are frames which have came in with brood I have purchased.

 I cut mine from untreated extra thick yellow pine decking
> I get cheap.  Obviously a hobbyist solution, but maybe there's someone
> selling thicker top bars commercially?

I have never cut frames. Always purchased frames.
 Most frame dimensions are close to the same but boxes vary quite a bit.

bob

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