In this video Laurence Edwards explains why newly mated queens often appear extremely small when first placed in introduction cages. He describes how confinement causes queens to voluntarily shrink their abdomens, a response seen in roughly 30‑40 % of cases, and why this can alarm beekeepers who receive queens that look only slightly larger than attendant workers. Edwards recounts his own recent introduction of a small F1 Buckfast queen from Black Mountain Honey three weeks earlier, chosen specifically for its minimal size to demonstrate the dramatic change. He inspects the colony, showing abundant brood, a calm temperament, and a clear laying pattern, then locates the queen on a central frame where her abdomen has fully lengthened—approximately double its original size. The video serves both as a scientific illustration of queen abdominal plasticity and a practical reassurance to beekeepers that a tiny queen in a cage will expand rapidly once introduced, restoring normal laying activity.
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3 weeks ago I introduced an F1 Buckfast queen from Black Mountain Honey into this colony here, and I made sure that I chose the smallest queen in the cage. Now I often get phone calls, I often get emails with people saying the queen that you sent me is just way too small, it's a tiny little queen in the cage and it's just a little bit bigger than the attendants, there must be something wrong. And I tell them exactly the same thing every time, and this is the reason that I'm doing this video. When a queen with a long abdomen is in a cage, she doesn't have a lot of space in there. It's really confined, they may be a little bit stressed out, and she can't move and maneuver very well. Now what mated queens do in this scenario is they shrink the size of their abdomen down as much as they possibly can. They have an amazing ability to be able to shrink it and lengthen it on demand. They obviously lengthen it when they need to be able to get their abdomen down to the bottom of a cell to lay an egg. When they're in a cage, there's no need for their abdomen to be that long. Now, not all queens do it, but I would say maybe in 30 or 40% of cases, the queen will shrink their abdomen down. Now, if I rewind to 3 or 4 weeks ago now, you will see the queen that was in the cage was a very small queen. I chose the smallest one out of the batch because I knew that 3 or 4 weeks later I'd be able to show you the difference really, really well. That's what I'm going to do in this video today. So you've seen the original queen there in the cage. Small queen, not that much bigger than the attendants. I'm going to go through this colony now and I'm going to find the queen. I'll show you some of the brood as well. Really nice, calm temperament bees. But wait till you see the size of this queen in terms of a comparison from when she went in only 3 weeks ago. So first up, let me show you some of the work that she's been doing. Lots and lots of brood in here. The colony was hopelessly queenless and there's about 7 or 8 frames of brood in here now. Really nice, calm bees. And again, a beautiful frame of brood. Lovely laying pattern. Jaws and necks are coming in here as well now. A successful introduction has definitely taken place. So see if you can spot the queen on that frame there. Absolutely slap bang in the middle on the centre. So you can see her on there, fully lengthened abdomen, not fussed at all about me working her. She is just intent on going out and laying some eggs. Beautiful green marked F1 Buckfast queen from Black Mountain Honey. If you're looking in your cages and you're thinking, what is going on? This queen looks small. Get her into your colony, introduce her, get her back to laying, and you will see that abdomen literally double in size within a couple of weeks.
