??Geoff said:
> >  Comb that has already had brood in it works better than just
> foundation, especially if they are close to heading for the trees.

Some queens will lay eggs in the  foundation indentions but most old queens
will continue to prepare for flying with the swarm when only presented with
foundation to lay in..
It is my opinion that when queens run out of cells to lay in due to brood
*or* being filled with nectar by worker bees the bees sense the queen is
making a transition from an egg laying machine to a swarm queen and the
workers will start cells.
I have no proof of my hypothesis but other longtime beekeepers in
discussions about  my hypothesis.agree
Frames of foundation are better than doing nothing but in mine and Geoff's
opinion if you have the choice to use comb which has had brood raised many
times the queen will resume laying which *if* the hypothesis put forth in
bee books that the queen needs to stop egg laying for three days before
swarming in order to be able to fly is true then using drawn versus 
foundation makes sense.

bob h.

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