"five recombination events per chromosome per meiosis"

And if honey bees are consistent with other animals that have been examined that means some queens average ten or more recombination events per chromosome per meiosis.

At least one recombination event per chromosome is thought to be mandatory during meiosis.  This is even true in species like birds that have microchromosomes which are so small that the rate of recombination per base pair would have to be extraordinarily high..

There are no absolute limits on where a cross over happens.  Yes, there are hot spots where they are much more frequent than simple stats would suggest.  So they are for sure not simply random events.  However, there is nothing at all the prevents or forbids a recombination happening right in the middle of some gene.  In fact I know of a human who has two independently known functional mutations in one copy of that person's cystic fibrosis gene. The most reasonable explanation for how this happened is in either the egg or sperm that formed this person a cross over happened in the middle of the persons CF gene during meiosis that combined the two mutations originally one two different chromosomes into one gene.

Dick

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