Hi, a friend of mine, working on bees in Israel is doing just the same:
i.e. shocking the bees with carbon dioxide. He says it's always succeeded
and that the bees are not harmed. This method may leave you with as much
as 5 minutes and can even be applied more than once.
Cheers, Rivka Nokrian, Israel.
 
On Fri, 6 May 1994, Blair J. Sampson wrote:
 
> Liz,
>         Cooling bees slows down their metabolism. They go into a brief
> period of hibernation. As long as their tissues do not freeze and the
> bees are well fed, they will do fine. I also found that a short blast of
> carbon dioxide will induce brief narcosis. The advantage of this is you
> reduce the bees exposure to extreme temperatures during photo
> op's.
>
>                                                         Blair,
>