> Is there a turnstyle for the sperm...?
 
Queen biology: there ARE "two separate dispensing systems, one for eggs
and one for sperm".  Again I do not have references in front of me so
I'm working from memory.  Eggs originate in the ovaries, a queen has
many, some more than others.  The ovaries develop in the first few days
of queen larval development.  This is a key reason why you want queens
raised by populous hives with plenty of nurse bees to feed developing
larva copious amounts of royal jelly, as opposed to queens raised under
stressed conditions (emergency queens).  The better nourished queen
larva will have more and better developed ovaries than a lesser
nourished larva.
 
The second part of the egg fertilization equation is the sperm,
which travels down a canal from the spermatheca.  The spermatheca
(soft emphasis on first syllable, hard emphasis on third syllable) is
the organ where the queen stores sperm from the chosen drones of her
nuptial flights.  The egg from the ovary canal meets with the sperm from
the spermatheca canal just before the queen places it at the bottom of
the cell.
 
Speculation is there is some sort of mechanism that is pressed by the
tighter worker cell that triggers the release of sperm which does not
get pressed when the queen lays in a larger drone cell.  This is
speculation and to my knowledge is not proven in a lab, but accounts for
worker cells always containing fertilized eggs whereas drone cells
contain unfertilized eggs.  Perhaps the queen has actual control over
the release of sperm and knows when to fertilize and when to not.
Perhaps it is mechanical as speculated.  Truth be told, no one knows for
sure.
 
>> Anyone else heard this one.
Given the biology lessons as I have learned them I would discount the
story Madeleine's father heard at the National Honey Show in the UK last
autumn.
 
Aaron Morris - hoping I got my facts correct
             - thinking it would be a good assignment for anyone who
               cares to check!