Yeti, they are not yet laying winter bees...these start being laid a bit later usually around late September through October..timing depends a bit on where you live. It is not uncommon for many queens to go off the lay this time of year, particularly when thymol treatments have been used against varroa...so patience.
I there is space where you would expect to see brood - i.e. the bees have polished cells in the middle of the brood area, then you are fairly safe to assume that there is a queen present as bees will generally fill those cells with food if there is no queen. If there is very little forage where you are, it may be difficult to see though - the area of polished cells is much easier to see if there is plenty of food coming in or you give them a couple of litres of syrup.
