Queenless in mid-September in Galway and nobody has queens left — combine with the neighbouring hive or let it dwindle?

Second year, three hives outside Galway. Hive 2 has lost its queen. Last saw eggs on the 28th of August; Sunday's inspection found no eggs, no larvae, only a handful of sealed brood left, and two emergency cells on the middle frame, both torn open at the tip. Bees are calm but there's that roar when you lift the crown board. Rang four suppliers yesterday. Nobody has mated queens, one lad might have a virgin next week. The colony is about seven frames of bees; my other two are strong at ten or eleven frames each. So, options as I see them: newspaper-combine hive 2 onto hive 1, or hang on and hope a queen emerged from those cells and gets mated. At 53°N in the middle of September is there any realistic chance of that? And would seven frames of bees on top of eleven make hive 1 too crowded for winter?