Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Must be quick this morning, we have so much to do for our daughter's 18th birthday barbeque tomorrow. We survived the teenage invasion last weekend and now have the family and friends invasion. This week has been very busy, so much new stock has arrived that I have been flat out housing and feeding it all. I was very pleased indeed to find a buyer for most of my larger stick insects. They went for a pretty small amount but at least I no longer have to collect endless amounts of bramble for them. I can now concentrate on the arachnids, which are by far the most popular pet bug these days. I hope to find time next week to sort out some more shelving units in the bug house. I need to re-arrange the space that the stick insect cages are no longer taking up. I'm sure you will have noticed that my clever husband has managed to sort the tarantula categories on my website. It is now easy to see which size is available in each species. I have been asked about searching on size quite a...

Lots of new spiders have arrived this week but I have unfortunately received very few orders. The bug house is bursting at the seams and I have another lot of spiders coming in again today. My life is a constant round of housing up, cleaning and feeding at the moment. I suspect that the drop in orders is due to the British Tarantula Society show this weekend. Everyone is saving their money for the show (oh dear for me). I always go to the BTS show, I have been a member since the eighties and I don't think I have missed a single show since then (even when my husband had meningitis, but I didn't know he was 'that' ill when I set off), this year I cannot go along as it is on our daughter's 18th birthday. We are well into 'the birthday' week in our family, five close family members in almost as many days. I am especially sorry to miss this show as it is the 25th Anniversary. Before the BTS came into being I was selling bugs but no spiders back in those days. It...

This amazing website has transformed the way I work. The website went live at the end of last September and I have never been so busy in my life. It is so much easier for customers to order online and not have to ring up with card details and check what is and isn't in stock. It is easier for everyone, I just wish I had done it several years earlier! This time of year is always busy but certainly this May is outstanding for sales. I am struggling to cope but everyone is being patient, especially my family. I have precious little time for anything other than work at the moment. Sales are going so well that I have the money in hand to buy new stock. Next week I have a lot of animals coming in, they will be mostly spiders and almost all are captive bred. I now have a number of captive bred true spiders and I am hoping to get some Wolf spiders and Orb Web (Nephila) next week. It is hard work and time consuming looking after all the tiny little ones, they are generally very fast and of...

Where did this week go? I cannot believe that it is Friday again. I have been very busy taking care of my mother in-law after her hip replacement operation. She is out of hospital and back in her own flat but will need a lot of help until she is literally back on her feet again. The bank holiday Monday threw everything out, I have been catching up all week with the packing and posting. I intend to work hard on my paperwork pile over the next couple of days. Sadly nobody made an appointment to visit last Saturday or this Saturday. It was certainly the right decision to stop the open afternoons. I could not afford to run them when nobody turned up and at least this way I am not left waiting around. Sometimes several people turned up at once on an open afternoon, this caused chaos but with appointments I can space them out. All is well in the bug house. My Cobalt Blue has dug a burrow and disappeared, hopefully this means that she mated before attacking the male and is now busy laying a...