FYI:

Worker policing is any behaviour by workers that reduces reproduction
by other nestmate workers . There is good evidence that one mechanism
of worker policing in the honey-bee (Apis mellifera) occurs via the
eating of eggs. Ratnieks and Visscher showed that almost all
worker-laid eggs from queenless colonies survived less than 1 day
when transferred to queenright tester colonies. In contrast, more
than 50% of queen-laid male eggs survived.

Worker-laid eggs treated with extracts obtained from queen Dufour
glands had increased survival , strongly suggesting that queens mark
their eggs with a pheromone from this gland and that workers
discriminate between queen and worker-laid eggs according to the
presence or absence of the pheromonal signal.

By using genetic markers to determine the percentage of workers' sons
in male eggs of different ages and in adult males, Visscher estimated
that workers lay 7% of all male eggs. However, almost all of these
are policed before hatching  and in normal colonies, only 1 adult
male in 1000 is a worker's son. Workers do not discriminate between
the queen's sons and worker's sons in the larval stage .

The proportion of workers with fully activated ovaries in normal
queenright colonies is extremely low, approximately 0.01%.


from
Evolution of worker sterility in honey-bees ( Apis mellifera)
by Benjamin P. Oldroyd · Francis L.W. Ratnieks
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Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>