Hi Chris

 > The stored sperms each remain separate and don't merge. If the
 > queen mated  with a dozen drones  there will be a dozen groups
 > of half-sisters in the  hive.

Joe asked the original question in a way that could be interpreted along 
gene combination lines. Just for the sake of clarity...

The individual sperm remain genetically true to the drone that issued 
them, but the storage within the queen's spermatheca is a mixture, 
however it is not a homogeneous mixture, but has granular clumps of 
identical sperm. As more and more research is carried out, we keep 
revising the size of these clumps downwards, the current thinking is 
that the clumps are of the order of a hundred sperm.

This gives rise to the possibility of consecutively laid eggs being of 
the same patriline, but also that all patrilines will be present in a hive.

There is no combination or re-combination of genes from different sperm.

All drone eggs laid in the hive will be genetic clones of the queen, 
apart from very small numbers (say one in million) that might arise by 
laying workers, anarchic workers or thelytokious workers.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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