Suggestions on a Nuc problem

[Chanticleer48]

I have a five frame Nuc that appears to have lost its queen....I had placed a deep on top of the brood chamber a couple of weeks ago because the frames were all drawn with lots of capped brood, larvae and eggs.  Now there are lots of new bees and capped brood but no eggs being laid back, the bees are back-filling the empty brood combs with honey.
There aren't any queen cups or supercedure cells....i plan to purchase another queen but was wondering if I needed to invert the brood chamber when I requeen,(put the bottom box on top and the top box on bottom).  The top box has no comb drawn and is brand new.

Suggestions???

[sc-bee]

Backfilling in the brood chamber this time of year can be a sign your bees a about to swarm. You mentioned the top box has no foundation drawn out which means the queen has no space to lay. The bees interpret this as being crowded and begin to backfill to stop the queen from laying and get her in flight condition. The queen cell should follow shortly.

Not sure what you meant by adding a deep on top of the nuc. Did you add another five frame deep box? Is this your only hive? Sounds like you need to give them some space and try and cut the swarm off ASAP. The amount of equipment and resources you have on hand may help determine how you will accomplish this. Right off without knowing other factors IMO. I would move some full frames up and some empty frames down into the brood chamber to create space. I would move a full honey frame from the out side if there is one and move a foundation frame into the center of the brood. Hopefully this will encourage them to draw out some new space.

[Steel Tiger]

 If the nuc and top are both deeps, try putting two frames of brood into the top box with an empty frame between them and two empty frames into the bottom box with a drawn frame between them. A couple of frames of empty comb would be even better if you have them. Afterwards, give them a week then look for signs of eggs/larvae. If no eggs, requeen. If you find eggs, keep an eye out for queen cells.
Nucs require a bit more maintenance than a full size hive. When a frame of brood emerges, you suddenly have a box packed with bees that need more space and want to swarm. The best way to avoid this is to pull out a frame of brood and replace it with an empty frame. Put the frame of brood into a hive or make another nuc if you have two frames of brood.