Bees have "tells".  Much like a Gambler, who might have a really good hand, they might have a habit of twitching their eyelid, etc.  This can give away their current position, or status.  In the same way, when a colony of Honey Bees decides to swarm, they can give off several Tells.  These Tells, you should learn and know.  This will put you ahead of the swarming event.  Buying you time to get some boxes ready and make a quick plan of attack.  Here are the key Tells that you need to look for;

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1) Massive Drone build up.  You'll see Drone larva packed everywhere.  Between frames, on top of frame bars, etc.  A real mess.  Since Drones take 23 days to hatch, they start here first.  Makes sense.  Now look at Eddy Woods Timeline (EWT) and see the bottom left corner.  This is their FIRST tell.

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2) The Ownership Hiss report, begins to change.  When you bump the bottom brood box, you should hear a high, fast, short Hiss report.  Do this twice; bump, then listen. Bump, then listen.  Bump only once, then listen.  If you hear a fast high sharp hiss, they're telling you; Hey, we're okay in here, we own the house and have no plan to leave anytime soon.  This is a stable colony. However, if the colony has entered Swarm Mode, you'll hear a noticeable change in the Hiss report.  It will be softer, not as loud and might have a wavey sound to it.  You may hear multiple waves roll through.  As you approach Egg Lay Day #1 for Queen cells, this Hiss Report gets much softer and can sound like "Shhhhhhhhhhhh".  It may even last a while.  Called a "moan". A longer, softer sound.  As you approach Egg Day #6, the Queen cells will get capped over.  When you bump the bottom brood box, you might hear ______________________________, that's right.  Nothing!  You may even think they've left.  If left unsplit, they'll leave the next day or so.  Split them immediately. Once the Queen cells are capped over, there's nothing left for the girls to do.  So, they rally up to leave.  Gone! 

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3) The Warble, from the Nurse bees.  Our ears can't hear this.  As the Workers run the Queen around, they'll prevent her from laying any eggs. They want to her get to "flight weight".  As the days go by, the egg population goes down, but the remaining Worker Pupae hatches.  This creates an out of balance condition between the young new Workers vs the egg population.  These new Nurse bees don't have much to care for.  Therefore, they get rather pent up with energy.  They will start a clicking or zapping sound, much like a battery zap.  Eddy Woods was able to isolate this back in the early 50's.  Have a listen to Eddy Woods speech on sound cloud.  Here's the link; https://soundcloud.com/jamesaustinmoore/listen-to-your-bees

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When the new Queen goes out to mate and returns to lay more and more eggs, this Warble sound decreases, and the normal Hiss report returns.  The colony is now back in a balanced state.

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Study the pictures provided here.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try to determine WHERE the colony falls on this timeline, if they're in swarm mode. 

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A tip/suggestion - start a new habit.  A new bee chore, that's easy and fun.  Create "thump test Thursdays".  Around 10am to noon, do a simple thump test on your colonies, once per week.  Get use to hearing their Hiss Report.  You'll notice these differences quickly.  If you hear that the colony is not making their normal Ownership Hiss (high, sharp, fast), then you've likely caught them in swarm mode.  Keep monitoring this colony.  If you do a visual inspection, you'll likely find NO Queen cells.  You've caught them on the far left side of the timeline.  However, if you do see Queen cells.....YOU'RE LATE!  Now, you're on the far right side of the time line.  Gettin' the idea?  Take good notes too. 

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Now you know.  Enjoy!