From the time a package is hived, by your experiences, how long did it take your queens to go from the small stature young queen, to the full bellied Queens we all love to see?
Unless you purchase a virgin queen she should be enlarged when she is caged and sold. If she isn't I would ask my supplier how long she was allowed to lay before caging her.
Some queens get larger than others. She will be better fed when fully accepted by the package she was shipped with. She may have been slimmed down to flying size if she had not been attended too as much being dropped in a package of new bees.
I live in the middle of the northern part of the country and all queens I receive are small. Three days since being pulled if I can believe the suppliers. Some appear tiny. In two weeks they are looking pretty queenly usually. If they are going to that is.
What I've noticed is the queens emerging from a cell are mostly small.
When I place them in a mating NUC I check on them 12 days later to see what kind of pattern they have and mark them then.
I have found that most have fairly large adomens by then.
If I have an order I package her with attendants and then the next day requeen the mating NUC.