Now, guys, quit dead-bee-trap-bashing.  At U of I here we use a design by the g
adget man Norman Gary.  I believe he published the plans on J. Econ. Entomol.
If chuck needs more details, sent me a private mail.
  A dead bee trap is used to discourage the 'undertakers' -- bees that speciali
zed in removing corpses -- from removing them and drop into the trap.  this is
usually used to know the mortality of, say, newly introduced painted or marked
bees, A thing probably only bee-men would do.  As a matter of fact, I was cursi
ng all day today, because it took me 4 hours to collect 10 painted undertakers.
 It seems that some colonies removes corpses faster than others, who knows if t
hey have more undertakers or just enjoys more undertaking.
    The trap uses simple aerodynamics -- a bee carrying a dead needs a runway t
o take off, just like a plane, so by forcing bees to take off straight off, the
y usually end up dropping the dead in a plastic bag fitted under the screen
'cliff'.                         -zhiyong