Large queen-less hive

[KeyLargoBees]

This large hive hasn't had a deep brood box inspection for over a month......I either rolled her majesty on the last inspection or something happened to her shortly after I inspected.....Hive was wall to wall solid brood larvae and eggs last time I checked so they continued to grow and population has increased...I have just been checking on honey supers and wondering why they were so much slower than the other hives as far as needing supers went......now I know.

Noticed the change in temperament the other day but didn't get a chance to look in until today. No sign of any brood at all and both Deep brood boxes are solid honey. I have other hives I can pull egg frames from so I could let them build their own....or I can combine a small queen right swarm with the colony.... but there is absolutely no space for a queen to lay.

Can I introduce a queen in cage in the midst of this honey-bound mess and will they relocate honey up to honey supers to give her space? Or should I under super with a deep brood box as bottom box on the bottom board with a queen right swarm and do a newspaper combine with the big hive (and a top entrance) on top of the queen right swarm?. Or just under-super with a deep box and naked foundation one frame of eggs and maybe one frame of drawn comb?

First time I have run into this and I cant pull any of the honey filled frames in the brood deeps yet to open things up because they are probably only 20% capped at this point.

[rwlaw]

If it's been a month or less, there might be a queen ready to lay, so I wouldn't do a combine till its confirmed there isn't one.
I guess my vote would be a frame of larvae and see what they do with it.

[BeeMaster2]

I agree with Rwlaw but the honey bound brood area is telling me that there is not a queen in that hive. I have been watching my observation hive start from 6 frames of brood with a frame of honey and pollen. I thought I lost the Queen on her maiden flight. I added a frame of brood and a week later the I had nice patterns of young larvae and lots of eggs. I had seen the brood area being emptied but figured they were using more honey than they could bring in.
When you add the frame of brood look for a brood area being opened up. It may bee in an upper box. My queen started in the top 2 frames and has now worked her way down and filled all 8 frames with larvae.
Jim