GREAT to SEE YOU BACK :)
I hope you make out okay, I'm sure you will - it sounds like a lot of people are going to be early or late - nothing worse though than a ahipping cage full of bees and see them drop to the bottom a few hundred a day.
I had one package DIE on me before I got to install them, but it was only 2 days after getting them and I had a second package at the same time and THEY did fine. I don't know what happened, but I surely should have thought about MAIL DAMAGE, but I think both shipping cages would have either lived or died, not one of each.
I need to look up another post of someone I was going to write concerning their bees being KEPT at the post-office too long. It is so important to look them over IMMEDIATELY or you will EAT the cost of the bees.
Best wishes and come around more often :) Let us know how everything works out.