In the original article, they write:

> Reliance upon royal jelly as the exclusive food for queen-destined larvae and for the long-lived adult queen may have evolved in concert with the exploitation of the biological activity of phenolics for caste regulation via a form of chemical castration.

In my view, this is very sloppy writing. Castration refers to "the removal of the testicles of a male." Further, in the honey bee workers, the ovaries are still present in a smaller form and can produce viable eggs. In fact, the story is much more complex than the presence or absence of one dietary component. 

I suggest reading "Nutritional, endocrine, and social influences on reproductive physiology at the origins of social behavior," which covers the spectrum, not only of diet but of different hymenopteran life cycles:

> An effect of size and quality of larval diets on reproductive caste determination has also been observed in temperate halictid bees that diapause ... Interestingly, worker-destined and queen-destined diets in these species differed in *sugar content* which contributes to lipid stores, and is thus likely to have an indirect effect on reproduction mediated through diapause survival. 

Not just chemical regulation is involved:

> A notable source of variation in reproductive physiology among ants, bees, and wasps is the role of the *social environment* on nutritional and endocrine pathways. ... exposure to queen pheromones suppresses ovarian activation and JH synthesis in worker honey bees, and this is mediated through the Notch signaling pathway in the ovaries ... direct aggression from queens and other workers can inhibit Vg expression and ovarian activation ...

SEE: Kapheim, K. M. (2017). Nutritional, endocrine, and social influences on reproductive physiology at the origins of social behavior. Current Opinion in Insect Science.

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