At what point do the leaves turn yellow b4 the buds swell or after?

I know im near to my buds swelling although i dont know how far gone they exactly are as i never recorded the weeks as they went past. I have frost on the leaves around
the bud/flowering clusters and theres quiet a few leaves turning yellow. The plant is california orange. Does anybody have any rough ideas on how far i am through the flowering/budding stage?

the leaf turn seems to be strain dependent, best way to be sure of ripeness is to check buds with a magnifier for trichome color
i did run a cali-o just a little while ago, male - them's the breaks

Do they get brown spots.as they turn yellow tho?

^^^ they should not, that sounds a bit more like a problem(not sure what)
typically, the bud should grow out a ways before the yellowing starts, that's the fan leaf's purpose, to grow out the bud
but the timing can vary

around week 6 or 7 of flowering you will start to get yellowing fan leaves. you will loose a few lower ones and now that the buds are nearing the end of the process they will start to blow up as it gets closer to the end of flowering time. but the buds stay small till about week 6 then they will start to put weight on them. take 2 tblspns of mollasses or syrup and mix it with a two liter bottle of water and shake it up and water with that. that will help the buds plump up a lil bit. depending on the strain and how many weeks flowering it takes determines exactly when they plump up in the end of flowering

Its the fan leaves that are going yellow and a few of the lower smaller ones r too

Depends on the strain, but in the last 2-3 weeks it's normal to have fan leaves start to yellow and drop off. This will accelerate when you start to flush.

If it's earlier on and the whole plant seems to get pale green then start to yellow, it may be a sign it's not getting enough nutrients. In my current grow I have some Kandy Kush start getting pale about 4 weeks in, upped my nutes and it greened up within a day or two. Now hitting week 9 and getting some yellow fan leaves, so right on track.

a picture never hurts, may well be the normal ripening process
it can be tough to judge, strains have their quirks, some feed more heavily than others

id bet you were in week 5-6