Yours is an old post, but I will put in my two cents. With nights in the 20s, that box would be cold by midnight. It is possible that the package bees would form a cluster, which they must do at that type of temperature, with the queen cage in their midst. On the other hand, it is possible that they will just go to the center of the box and make their ball there. If the queen cage is at the top of the middle of the frames, which it would be, she and the attendants might be left out of the cluster. Bad news.
I got two queens in the mail yesterday, and put their cages on the top bars of the middle of three brood boxes. The colonies were 2 days queenless, and they responded very well to the queen cages, crowding around and flitting happily. We had a cold night, 17f, which was unexpected, and the colony formed a very close cluster. The queen cages were four inches or so outside the clusters, and when I checked today at noon (with a temp. of 40f) the queens and attendants were half frozen, barely moving! They had been cold all night. I felt awful. By two, when I checked them again after having opened the ends of both cages and having placed them on the top bars facing down, the heat had revived them and I got them out of the cages and they went peacefully down into the frames. Maybe they will be OK, maybe they are damaged.
Cold nights are a pain.
I think that with a package of bees, there is almost no risk of the queen getting balled (attacked). The sellers always suggest two or three days in the queen cage, but if the worker bees are comfortable and calm, they will probably accept a queen almost any time. My queen seller stipulated 48 hours before opening up the second cork ends, but today, after 24 hours, the bees were very friendly, once they broke cluster, to the queens, and I am confident that they will be fine with their queens (anyway I had no choice).
When it is in the 40s, I try to open the hives as little as I can manage, mainly because of the open and capped brood that is in them, but bees are tough, and with enough stores, they can handle pretty cold conditions.
Just in case, I ordered two more queens from the same place for next week.
What do I tell my friends? I got honey! They love it! RCG