Long Live the queen

I cut back on my queen order, down to 5. I'd only had 9 okay hives alive and unable to buy frames of brood with ease. They are sitting in the kitchen for now, need to get them out to the splits I made yesterday. What you are seeing here is a 3 hole cage, right side has a fondant candy plug that all the bees will eat through when I remove the cork covering the end. The left side has a cork to keep the bees in, I will pull the cork out if queen is not released in 3 days (never had to do it). The queen has her head aimed for 12 oclock, tail towards 6 oclock. It can be seen here that she is larger than the rest, with a little food and attention her abdomen does get larger. These are the cordovan italians from CF Koehnen, a favorite of mine. CLICK IMAGE FOR DETAILS