Laying workers in mid-September in Quebec — shake them out on the grass, newspaper combine, or just write it off?

Five years, nine hives in Quebec. One colony superseded in August and must have lost the virgin, because this week I found it: several eggs per cell, eggs stuck on the cell walls, scattered domed cappings, no queen anywhere, maybe four frames of bees and getting aggressive. Far too late for a queen here. I know the three schools of thought. Shake them out 50 m away on the grass "because laying workers can't fly back". Newspaper-combine onto a strong queenright colony and accept the risk that they kill the good queen. Or shake the bees out, store the comb, and call it a loss. In summer I've always combined and it's gone fine. But it's mid-September, frost is three weeks away, and I'd rather not gamble a good queen on four frames of old bees. What do you actually do at this time of year?