Swarm sound?

[Charlie]

I just arrived back in town from being away for the weekend and my best hive has a fair amount of bees sitting outside of the entrance. My other hives have a few Bee's at the entrance but not 200-300, in addition to this the bees are very loud compared to the other hives. I did pull the cover off and did tip over the top box to look in the middle of the brood chamber and this hive seems to be very full of bees since I last checked it in the last four or five days ago. While the sun is down, it is not yet dark however it is too late in the day to be pulling apart the hive. So my questions are as follows:
- is this the mythical sound and behaviors that I've read about of the hive that is about to swarm?
- Is there any other possible reason as to why the bees would do this?

I will pull the hive apart and do an inspection tomorrow to confirm my suspicions and I expect I will be doing a walk away split at the same time.

I will also be setting up the swarm traps. Just to see if I can get lucky.

[Allen Dick]

If you can look at the bottom of the bottom box, you will see how crowded the hive is -- or isn't.

If there are bees on six bottom bars, then it is time to super. If they are wall to wall, then you are late.

I tip wood boxes forward or back to look , but am a little more careful with EPS boxes. If the brood chambers are really heavy, it is possible to deform the EPS where it contacts the floor board when being tipped. Not a huge functional issue, but it can cause cosmetic damage.