I have a colleague who is concerned at the difficulties he has experienced over recent years with queens which are apparently short-lived. He has extensive and thorough records which indicate that he is having to replace queens at a younger age now than 20 years ago, or queens are being superseded more frequently than in the past.

He asks me a question which I could not answer:- when was the custom of marking queens with one of five colours (so that the year of each queen could be identified) introduced? 
Thank you.

Matthew Allan


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