The Very Handy Bee Manual

How to Catch and Identify Bees and Manage a Collection

This manual is a compilation of the wisdom and experience of many individuals, some of whom are directly acknowledged here and others not. We thank all of you. The bulk of the text was compiled by the USGS Bee Lab (BIML), over several years from 2004-2008. We regularly update the manual with new information, so, if you have a new technique, some additional ideas for sections, corrections, or additions, we would like to hear from you. Please email those to Sam Droege (sdroege@usgs.gov), Clare Maffei (clare_maffei@fws.gov), or the whole Bee Lab (beelab@usgs.gov). You can also email Sam if you are interested in joining the “Bee Inventory, Monitoring, and ID” discussion group. Many thanks to Dave and Janice Green, Gene Scarpulla, Liz Sellers, Tracy Zarrillo, Sydney Shumar, and Clare Maffei for their many hours of editing this manual.