You did not say how your other packages are doing. It is likely a drone layer, particularly if the drones are capped and not scattered.
Rather than use the bees that are getting old for starting cells I would use your best queens brood and a fresh nuc or even brood over an excluder rather than a straight split.
Keep looking for the queen, you will find her. Move the frames out of the hive one by one, shake off most bees and check carefully, into another body, she will have a hard time hiding when there are no frames left in her hive. Shake off all bees and recycle through to pick up more bees if you have to.
If you put an empty in the old location and move the hive to check you will get less traffic.
Rather than use the bees that are getting old for starting cells I would use your best queens brood and a fresh nuc or even brood over an excluder rather than a straight split.
Keep looking for the queen, you will find her. Move the frames out of the hive one by one, shake off most bees and check carefully, into another body, she will have a hard time hiding when there are no frames left in her hive. Shake off all bees and recycle through to pick up more bees if you have to.
If you put an empty in the old location and move the hive to check you will get less traffic.
