>This sounds like the way to go.  I never thought about practicing on
drones.
>But, how do you hold them by the thorax and also paint the thorax?  It
seems
>as if my fingers would be in the way.
>Richard

Once you've caught her, with your thumb on one side, the forefinger on the
other and the middle finger underneath slide the thumb and forefinger down
her sides a little.  This should leave just enough space between the two to
get the small paint brush from the bottle of polish in there for a dab.  You
don't have to hold her tight, just enough to keep her from crawling away.
If you have to slide your fingers down to the point of trapping her legs
between the two fingers to get the paint brush tip in there, just make sure
you trap at least two legs on each side.  This will keep her from twisting
accidentally and damaging a leg.

If your fingers are too big for this, try swapping her into your other hand
by putting the fingertips of three or four fingers on that hand together
forming a little "tunnel" in the middle of them.  You can then put you
fingertips from both hands together, loosen the pressure holding her in your
first hand and let her start to crawl into that tunnel.  Once she's got her
head and part of her thorax in the tunnel you can keep a little pressure on
her to keep her from crawling further.  This should leave enough of the
thorax visible to add a dot of paint.  This is also a good way to hold her
if you ever want to clip her wings as it leaves them exposed as well.

If you do clip her wings it's only necessary to clip off about two-thirds of
one set of wings.  I've used a small pair of sharp scissors I "borrowed"
from my wife's manicure set, but I've seen one beekeeper in Texas slide the
queen's wing-set on one side of her over the top of the open super so they
are flat on the edge.  Then, using the sharp edge of his hive tool (or a pen
knife) he would press down through them and into the super edge to cut them
off at the desired length.

I know it's a difficult picture to put into words, but once you practice on
some drones it will all come clear.

--David Scribner
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