could be. one way to tell is to get into the hive and see if there are bees stuck head first in cells and are dead, or very sluggish. take a spray bottle of sugar water out with you. spray the bees lightly. if they perk up pretty quickly and start grooming and eating, they were probably starving. you can load the cells with your spray bottle sugar water and then get some feed onto the hive.
this late in the year with no stores, they need to be feed heavily anyway or they have no chance to make it through winter.