I have been following this conversation with much interest. Yesterday I
took a look at my observation hive. I noticed that I also have workers
that have wings longer than their body. I also have ones with shorter
than their body and ones with the same length. Their seems to be no
pattern or continuity in wing length in this particular hive. The Queen
is a daughter of an artificiality inseminated Queen from York Bee Co. I
believe that the original Queen was Italian. The current queen was
naturally breed in my apiary with four different strains of hives around
it. This observation hive is about eight hundred feet from the nearest
hive, so I am reasonably sure that I am seeing bees that were reared in
the hive. I also noted this same wing length differentiation in one of
my hives in our apiary. This queen also I am told is of an Italian
strain. I say this because I just received this hive this spring from
another beekeeper. So for whatever this is worth I plan to check my
other colonies the next time I go in.
Regards
Garrett