>I am looking for good methods of bleeding bees without causing undue harm
>to the bees.  Anybody have a sure-fire, easy method, especially one that
>could be employed by students without much experience with bees.
>
Jerry:
The easiest method to bleed bees is to use 1 or 2ul microcaps and gently
insert them under one of the abdominal tergites in the vicinity of the
dorsal vessel.  We have used this technique to sample individual bees
several times for the analysis of carbohydrates in the hemolymph. We usually
place the blood samples into 1.5 ml microfuge tubes for further handling of
individual samples.
Regards - Rick Fell
Richard Fell
Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
703-231-7207  Fax 703-231-9131