Does the queen slow down laying before swarming?

[enchplant]

Okay so I have a booming hive that I was thinking might swarm. So i went thru the frames and found lots of capped brood, but very few frames of open brood. It is a major honey flow right now. There were a few frames with open brood with tiny larvae but I couldn't see any eggs.

Does the queen stop laying for a few days before swarming? slimming down to flight weight?

[Michael Bush]

>Does the queen stop laying for a few days before swarming? slimming down to flight weight?

Yes.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

[L Daxon]

As Michael said, yes, the queen will slow down, maybe even quite laying altogether before swarming.

I had a similar situation to yours last week.  I went in to do a split on a hive and I found lots of capped brood (drone and worker), a few larvae here and there but virtually no small crescent shapes and no eggs that I could see.  I found some swarm cells hanging off a frame  (a couple looked like they had been opened at the side) and on another frame in another box one what looked like a supersedure cell by itself in the middle of a frame.  So I am guessing maybe they had already swarmed and I had a young unmated queen who hadn't started laying/mated yet. 

I did the split anyway and will check back in about a week to see if I can see any smaller larvae/eggs in either hive.  But for now, both hives are going gang busters if traffic out front is any indication.