Al:
If I read your note correctly, you are talking about the swarm that you
recovered 3 weeks ago and you assume the old parent queen is there?
Apparently you put only 5 frames of foundation in a hive body and spaced them
perhaps an inch apart.  Am I correct in that?

You can NOT under any conditions get foundation properly drawn 1) unless
there is a nectar flow on or you are feeding 1:1 sugar syrup continuously,
and 2) BEE SPACE has to be observed.  You cannot get 5 frames of foundation
drawn in a hive body.  YOU
HAVE TO DRAW 10 FRAMES at a time. After foundation is drawn into drawn comb,
you can then use the drawn comb frames either 8 or 9 in a body; but you MUST
draw 10 at a time.
your best treatment right now, would be (nasty or not) put 10 frames of
foundation in a body  and scrape the present 5 frames clean and start over
with those, and transfer the bees on to the new 10 frames while you are
cleaning up the 5.  Maybe you will see the old queen and kill her.

You also said that you had just started a split from this nasty colony.  Did
you buy a new queen for it,  transfer a swarm cell, or just going to let them
raise a queen?

                George Imirie