Nuc not thriving...

I visited the Nuc back on August 18th. You'll recall this is the nuc that I relocated from my bee yard on 7/21 to a distant yard in order to keep the other hives from robbing it. I would expect that it would have rebounded by now and started to show some improvement.

But here's what I found on the inspection on 8/18:

Notice the *very* spotty brood pattern. This looks a lot like a queenless hive - where most of the brood was hatched. But I found the queen:

(lower left quadrant) so I know she is there. Maybe she is a poor layer? The other bees haven't tried to supercede her (yet).

One thing that could be in play is that I noticed a lack of nectar in the comb. I had been feeding the bees sugar syrup (1:1) but haven't been very diligent in keeping feed on the hive. That day I added another 2 quarts.

I'll probably go out and check it in the next day or so, and take more feed. I need to think about moving it back to my yard, so I can get it beefed up for the winter.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions?