New Trouble with the Star Crossed Hive

I was finally able to do a first inspection today on the second hive. The Texas girls. Well, if they didn't have bad luck, they'd have no luck at all, as the saying goes. Turns out they had never released the queen. The candy plug was still in place and her dessicated remains were inside her cage. I'm assuming that she must have succumbed to the rigors of her travels north from Texas with an empty food can and she must have checked out early on because it appeared the candy plug had hardly been touched. I guess that's one way to eliminate possible Africanized DNA.
The bees themselves had given every indication of good health and cheer by their activities at the entrance. Constant traffic with leg pouches crammed with pollen was an everyday occurance. On inspecting the frames, they had drawn out six frames about 75% with the other four empty of cells. Obviously, there was no brood and no capped honey as well. Their efforts had not had the inspiration provided by a queen and her magic pheromones.
The obvious downside to all of this is that I'm now in a bit of a time crunch to ensure that this hive can still prosper or survive at all. Without eggs, they can't even make a new queen. The twelve days wasted is 12 more days off of the lives of the existing bees. Remember, workers only live 5 or 6 weeks. Given that the hive population will drop anyway in the three weeks it takes for the first eggs to turn into new bees, the youngest bees currently in the hive will be nearly five weeks old when the next generation can crawl out of their cells to take their place. And that's if I can get a queen immediately.
Another possibility I thought of is combining these bees and frames with the other hive, thus boosting the first hive's population and providing it with additional drawn frames. Of course this will mean I'll be down to just one hive for the year, but maybe it will pay dividends in the form of increased productivity this spring and perhaps more honey to show for it over the course of the year. I'll have to ask someone about that.
I posted my dilemma on the talk group set up for all of us newbies and can only hope someone can come forward to sell me a new queen and maybe even some frames with capped brood. Frames with capped brood will cut the time for some young blood to appear in the hive. Either way, this course of action doesn't seem to alleviate the reality that this hive will be behind the eight ball for this year. This is one of those times where experience would pay off but I have a very short supply of that!
This all makes me more upset with the Post Office for taking 6 days to get a priority package of bees to me. Maybe this is an isolated occurance but it sure seems to have doomed the success of my second hive. I should have refused them when I saw so many dead bees in the bottom of the package but in my enthusiasm I didn't, and so I lost the chance to make a claim on the insurance I had purchased. One thing is for sure, I'll be doing all my future purchases of bees in person or through the club - like I should have done in the first place.