Hello Dick,

> "It has been your author's experience that painted queens are >superceded
much quicker than unpainted queens but many beekeepers >do paint their
queens because they are so much easier to find."

I suspect there is merit to the above statement. I do not believe the
instance of supercedure in  high because of  marking. In observation hives
it always seems like only a few bees which follow the queen and try to
remove the paint.
I use the product *white out* for observation hive queens and have found
many times over a several day event the bees have almost removed the
marking. I believe the queens attendants are very aware of her marking. In
my opinion the instance of supercedure would occur sooner than later.
Murray M. of our list runs a large number of hives and marks all his queens.
Maybe Murray will comment.
I do not mark queens except in test hives as I requeen all on a regular
basis. I am sure I requeen a young supercedure queen every once in a while.
Murray requeens as needed and has said he has marked queens several years
old still in production hives.
Many methods  in use to keep bees. Marking certainly gives the beekeeper
information about the queen when working the hive that working a hive
without a marked queen doesn't.
If you replace all queens  on a regular basis then why mark other than the
ease of finding the queen.
I could point out the pro's and con's of both methods in my opinion but will
not as one must simply choose the method which works best for their part of
the world and their own operation.
Sincerely,
Bob