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 few times but I didn't know it was possible. I think this will make things much easier. I have already received positive feedback from a few customers. It does show just how many of my tarantulas fall into the small category. It's a shame, I wish I had more adult/sub-adult spiders but it is so difficult to source them at a saleable price. I visited a reptile friend this week and he had a couple of (rather dull and boring) Chile species. He was selling them at £29.99 trade, I couldn't sell them for that, let alone buy them at that price. Before my revamped, super website was launched last year I often had spiders for a considerable time and they would therefore grow into each category, from small, medium to large. However I now buy spiderlings in and they often go immediately, they don't get time to grow. I do have a number of 'grown on spiderlings', I am gradually developing the small/medium category. I would need to sort out my shelving before I can organise this properly, at the moment 'small' may be spiderling or juvenile as they are all mixed up in my bug house. I have a few shown in that category but these are mostly spiders that I have bought in at that size and not my own grown on ones. Oh this is sounding complicated, I hope it makes some sense!
The beginning of this week was really hot. I had fun trying to pack the spiders, they were fully revved up and raring to go. I had several bolt across the table and I ended up chasing more than one around the floor. I got them all packed in the end though. I was trying to catch a Green Bottle Blue that had climbed under the table, when I heard a terrible commotion outside. I caught the spider first and then went to investigate. A huge Red Kite had come down to collect some mice that my snakes hadn't eaten and my dog decided to chase it off. The bird came back later for it's meal. I love feeding the Red Kites, they are magnificent birds and we are so lucky to have them here in the Chilterns. A breeding station was set up years ago, it was so successful that the birds are no longer monitored as there are so many of them now.
One last point then I must get going - POSTCODES - I am really surprised how many people don't put their postcodes on their addresses. It is a required field but people simply put something else in there, such as the county they live in. A postcode is vital, I don't want to send parcels without it. Up until now I have always noticed and then had to find the correct code on the Royal Mail website. If I didn't notice, I could not be held responsible if the parcel went astray. I just print the label from the order form online so I could miss it.
Anyway off to Tesco soon to buy a mountain of food and drink. We may need to visit Homebase in the morning to get some gazebos as rain is forecast here. The barbecue is at lunch time tomorrow so we will reassess the situation in the morning. We couldn't fit everyone into our house so fingers crossed it doesn't rain! There is beautiful sunshine at the moment.
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