Mysterious Queen Disappearance

Hive two (left) has been struggling recently for an odd reason.

Recap: When I first established these hives, I let them alone for about two weeks so they could establish themselves in peace. I came back and H2 had created seven to nine queen cells to replace a queen they weren't happy with. I gave them a two week break to restore themselves and rear a new queen in peace. I come back and... there are no larvae.

I assumed the queen was out mating, but after another week... I still didn't see any eggs, pupae or larvae. What was going on? I gave them a little longer, just to see if something would happen, but all I could see was nectar. No eggs.

So, I asked my mentor if he had any nucs on hand. It was starting to become necessary that they have new larvae and a new queen. It had been nearly three and a half weeks without growth. A concerning amount of time to have no larvae, especially with the temperatures we've had here lately. It seems we're in a bit of a dearth right now.

In order to give them enough resources, my dad sent me back to campus with a new nuc of bees, a queen and plenty of larvae at the ready. The weaker hive I moved to the top, and the new strong nuc I put on the bottom, separating them with a newspaper with two little slits in it. The newspaper would work as a barrier to give them enough time to accept a new queen and integrate with the second hive without much interference or warring.

I went back a week later and the newspaper had been chewed through and the two hives seemed to have integrated just fine. The bottom had good larvae and pupae and there were plenty of new eggs, so the new queen is doing just fine. The top deep box now has become my accidental honey super because... that's all that the previous hive stored in there... Unless the queen moves up to that box, that should be their honey store for the winter.

Hive 1 now has been showing interestingly low levels of nectar storage though. They have plenty of larvae, but not as much nectar storage as I'd like to see... I'm thinking about giving them a .5/1 sugar/water ratio to give them a little boost for now.