When ordering the trees, did you mention you are in Zone 5A?
Tree are shipped according to the Zone to avoid storage problems as you are having now. Heeling is an interim solution for short term and not for Zone 5A in February.
I ordered trees and seeds fro Vessey (Vessey Canada) and they will ship after mid-April or close. Seeds wil be shipped right away.

I let them know more than once.

Peaceful Valley has to ship bare roots now, they are coming out of dormancy in CA! I will not order from them. Some nurseries like Bay Laurel can wait till the first week in March. But for CA Nurseries, that is the very latest. They usually start shipping in December. Next time order from a nursery in your area if possible. Stark is in the south and does tend to send early too, but only by a month or so. Expect the order about March 17th.
ACN is in PA and will ship more to your zone. Grandpa's is another to look at for your area. They are in my state MI.
They were the latest to ship me trees. I never ordered from ACN though. Raintree is another that will ship on time.
The CA nurseries clearly state when they ship. Over and over again. If Peaceful Valley waited for the proper time for you, the tree would be long dead. The tree would need to be potted to survive, but you are paying for bare root. Potted are more expensive as the dirt and all weigh a lot, and potted trees require more maintenance too.

Trees can stand the freezing temps, so heeling in works, but in pots is best, when the ground is workable you can put them in it.
I bought from Bay laurel last year, and we still had freezing temps the first week of March, but the ground was workable. We had enough warms days for it to thaw. I contacted MSU and they said plant them! They were clearly coming out of Dormancy, they even had flowers on them. I planted them, they went back into dormancy. Coming out of dormancy a 2nd time with flying colors. No blooms, but I expect some fruit this year. I cut them back also. And will again soon. I need to develop scaffolds first. Next year will be a decent crop. Just a few fruit this year, as I'm taking off much of the fruiting wood in late winter (pretty soon!).

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Feb 10, 14 at 19:37

Drew's right -- this is taken directly from the Peaceful Valley website:

Your order will ship out of our warehouse as soon as we receive your trees. (Dec-Jan). We cannot hold bare root items in CA, as they will begin to bud or flower. Once they break dormancy, they can no longer be shipped. We do not have the refrigerator capacity to hold all orders, which is why all trees will ship out as soon as we receive them.

It sounds like the rep with whom you spoke did a poor job of explaining why, but it does appear that they have a legitimate reason for shipping your order now.

During an extended warm spell in January I ordered some trees from Peaceful Valley because the ground was warm and a good time to plant here in Colorado (at least I hope it was a good time). I chose them because it was clear on their website that they would ship them right away. It took a couple days for them to ship but I got the trees in 7 or 8 days after my order and was happy about that.

I guess I should have ordered these from Raintree then. These were all dave wilson trees, and not stuff stark or acn sells. I never noticed the disclaimer I guess. My bad, I assumed they had cold storage.

Now that you have them I would heal them in a pile of 10 year old cow manure. I have done that before and did not lose any trees.

Well your trees will be fine. If you have a wheel barrel and they will all fit, you could keep them in the garage slanted almost horizontal. Cover roots with potting soil or sand. Keep damp, or moist not wet or dry. They should remain in dormancy. If potted inside they might start growing. Potted in the garage, they might stay in dormancy, but the vertical angle stimulates them to grow. Put them in the ground as soon as you can. When temps stay above 28 degrees, that is a good time.
Next year you could try Bay Laurel Nursery. You would get them the first week in March, and have lesser of a time to heel them. If at all? They have all the Dave Wilson stuff too! Raintree though is a better option. I ordered 2 blueberry bushes and one blackberry from Bay Laurel. On the order you check when you want them. the 1st week of March is the lastest delivery date, which i checked. i will pot them up till time to plant. Keep them inside under lights.
They will actually get a head start on the season.

The larger nurseries put there trees in refrigeration after digging while dormant. Even with this trees I order from the west will usually be already budding when they arrive in late March, but they do fine. Stay away from small growers that aren't in your zone.

Should have said, stay away from warmer zone nurseries if they don't utilize refrigeration. Trees of Antiquity, in Central CA, is not large, but they have refrigeration for their trees after they are dug.

Most of what dave Wilson has (raintree, peaceful valley ect) wont survive here, so I don't normally order from anyone out there. These 10 are my potted dwarf tree experiment. I may be able to buy some bags of soil (a LOT) at menards. I will still have to bring the bags inside to thaw them, but then I could go ahead and pot the trees and then set them out on the north side of the shop in the shade. Maybe I could plant them in that thawed potting soil and then later add more native soil to it.

That is the idea, let them winter in the shade and then move them into the greenhouse to protect blooms later.

They may all be a loss out here anyways, so I shouldn't worry too much about it.

Drew51, Stark Brothers is not in the south. They are in Missouri in zone 6. .

Well for me it's 700 miles south. I call that south. It is also 550 miles south of Nebraska, so it's south of jagchaser too. I'm in zone 6 too, and it's -6 degrees right now, our zone 6 in the north is a lot different, It's going to be above freezing in Missouri tomorrow. We won't hit 32 for weeks.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Feb 11, 14 at 23:34

jagchaser,
May I recommend keeping the potting soil light.I use mostly conifer mulch with some peat moss and perlite.It's fairly easy to put together and helps the roots absorb oxygen better and they won't get so water logged.Lime and other things can be added if needed.
Plus,they will be easier to move around. Brady

Another lovely morning in Michigan!! At least future days look promising, I'm going sun bathing this weekend after these last couple of weeks! Above what? Freezing?, At last!
I'm glad I didn't get any bare roots this week!