My take, maybe someone else knows better, but a queen that is caged and not laying will slim down a bunch. Once she is out of the cage and in full production mode, she will regain her full size.
Marking paint wears off and sometimes the bees clean it off. Recently sold a nuc that had a marked queen, well she was still marked the week before I sold it. On inspection the day of the sale, she was completely devoid of paint markings. Pretty certain it was the same queen.
Marking paint wears off and sometimes the bees clean it off. Recently sold a nuc that had a marked queen, well she was still marked the week before I sold it. On inspection the day of the sale, she was completely devoid of paint markings. Pretty certain it was the same queen.