I was initially very excited by the talk "Confined mating of honey bee queens",
 presented by B.A. Stringer from Oregon state University.  I thought this would
 be a terrific way of getting around some of the problems AI had, but still off
ering controlled mating.  but after talking with some people, it became clear
 that the success is not that great.  In the talk it was not clear how many que
ens actually produce worker eggs.  later I was told, only ONE queen laid some w
orker eggs, and it is possible she could have exited from the mating nuc and ma
ted naturally.  also, in the talk, she indicated they checked the spermatheca
 for the presence of sperm, but did not present the data, and rumor says they
 never found any.  so it looks like the drones are mounting the queen and at le
ast trying to copulate, but whether it is successful or not remains to be seen.
  I still think it is a very hopeful device to tinker up.       Huang
a
s clear how many queens
a  laid worker eggs,