On a semi-related note (also somewhat unrelated), I think a dying colony with laying workers is intended by Nature. Think about it. If a queenless colony is most certainly going to die out (without man's intervention), it might as well make as many drones as it can, to spread its genes; a 'last hurrah' as it were. Same thing applies to a queen who's run out of sperm and begins laying drones, or a poorly mated queen who's laying only drones...
Even (or especially) late in the season: There's bound to be another hive somewhere who suddenly lost their queen or suddenly needs to supersede... The drone layers out there will provide the drones at odd times of the year. Granted, not every one of those drones is high-quality, but then, that's what mating flight 'races' are for... the few optimum specimens get the prize!