Queenless in late October in North Carolina — supplier says she can ship a queen, my mentor says combine

North Carolina, third year, six hives — five fine and one that I now realise has been queenless for a while. No eggs, no young larvae, a scattering of drone-sized cells in worker comb that I think is a laying worker starting up, and the bees are noticeably tetchy. Population is maybe five frames and dropping. Two credible people have given me opposite advice. A southern queen producer I've bought from before says she has mated queens available and that at our temperatures a colony can accept and build on a new queen well into November. My mentor says a five-frame colony with laying workers in late October is a combine, full stop, and that I'd be spending $45 to watch a queen get balled. Things I think matter. If laying workers are established, introduction gets much harder, and the usual fix is a frame of open brood to suppress them — but at this time of year taking brood from a healthy colony to prop up a failing one feels like robbing Peter. And even if she's accepted, the colony has to rear a round of brood before the weather turns, with mites still around.