A pretty quiet week
A pretty quiet week, not a lot coming in and not a lot going out. I hope things pick up next week because the weather is still amazingly mild here in Buckinghamshire. I have had no problems with anything in the post recently, nothing has arrived in a poor state and there have been no delays, so everything is good. I really hope that Royal Mail manage to cope with the Christmas post better than they did last year. I know the weather was bad but I do think they could have made more effort. Dropping the next day delivery guarantee for the entire month of December was a total cop out (in my opinion). Things got so bad that I stopped posting out orders long before Christmas, I just hope that if we do have any snow this winter that it falls between Christmas and New Year only! I am certainly planning ahead, my aim to cut down on leaf eating bugs is going well. I have had some cheap offers on my website over the last couple of weeks and later today I am visiting a fellow dealer who is taking a large number of Black Beauty stick insects off of me. They are beautiful stick insects but I don't have enough privet to sustain them for much longer. The same dealer is also taking 200 Hissing cockroaches, I'm so pleased as they are eating me out of house and home (believe me, I will still have plenty left). If there is something that you are thinking of buying on my website I would recommend getting it sooner rather than later, as things will sell out coming up to Christmas and I won't be replacing stock until the New Year. I have a lot of family things planned both coming up to Christmas and over the Christmas period so I cannot spend so many hours in the bug house as I am right now. Not all fun things, my mother in-law has endless hospital appointments coming up but I am going to Harrods for the day, next Thursday. It is an annual trip arranged by the local school to raise funds. I won't be around to send of any orders so I can only post Monday - Wednesday next week (it is such a pain that there is no weekend Special Delivery).
Last weekend the son of my gym instructor came over to photograph some bugs. He is studying photography at college and wanted to do some macro shots. I got to look at the results on Flicker yesterday and they were very good but rather creepy. The Fishing spider's cluster of eyes were especially good and the head of a Philippine Beauty stick insect, also the head of the Horse-head grasshopper, which is just so weird. I love the Horse-head grasshoppers and I have got them breeding very well now. They are in a large Exo Terre vivarium, I really like these cages but even at wholesale prices they are very expensive. I have been looking at my shelving in the bug house this week, I really need to change it. Some time ago we bought industrial shelving units for the back wall of the bug house but I think the sides need sorting too. One side is probably ok because it is all spiders and the boxes don't weigh too much but the other side is made up of heavier cages and I am really concerned that having shelves attached to the wooden walls is not a good idea. I don't want my log cabin caving in on me! The shelving that I bought last time is a bit too deep, I would choose more narrow shelving this time. It's another job to put on my hubby's never ending 'to do' list. Once I have the new shelving set up I will probably get some more Exo Terre vivariums, it would be nice to have a spare one or two so that I can move the bugs into a new cage that is already set up. At the moment I have to remove the occupants into a temporary cage and then put them back in after I have finished. I would much prefer to clean the cage at leisure and I'm sure I would make a better job of it too. I already have one or two nice cages that I cannot use as they are too tall for the current shelving. I didn't use to worry much about lighting, it is unnecessary for arachnids but I certainly find that a lot of insects breed far better when a light is provided during the day. I have quite a few lights on timers now as my current bug house is naturally quite dark. This is due to the large verandah which is needed to store all the containers and goodness knows what else. All these things certainly wouldn't fit into the bug house. I never have enough room as it is.
Lastly - I have decided to stop selling giant centipedes. They honestly scare the life out of me! They move like lightening thrashing about in all directions, climb, try to bite and generally terrorise me. I have packed and sent out two this week and that leaves me with two. Once these are gone that's it. There is very little profit on them and I cannot take the stress of it all. I don't know of anyone who has been bitten but I'm told they are very venomous and it gives me the creeps to post them. I am always happy to hear of their safe arrival, I was asked to post one to Europe recently and was greatly relieved when it got there. Packing them is a nightmare, the one yesterday morning wasn't too bad but the one the day before was a raging monster and I actually screamed when it almost got my finger. Enough is enough and I don't get paid enough!
Just looked at the date 11/11/11!