Virginia Cheeseman Blog

The reptile show that I went to last weekend was very good, I was surprised how many spiders and bugs were on sale there. My main reason for going was to collect some Giant Train millipedes but I also picked up several other species of millipedes. Of course I also purchased some more spiders and a few scorpions and other interesting creatures. I was very restrained and didn't buy any more leaf eating insects. I seriously need to cut down on these before the winter weather really sets in. Digging bramble out from under snow is no fun at all but looking on the bright side perhaps we won't have any snow this winter! I was very pleased with my new millipedes, they are popular pets and I haven't managed to get any new ones in for a while now. The price of millipedes certainly seems to have gone up over the last couple of years, it would be great if I could actually breed some of these. I have had several orders for them this week, since adding them to the site on Monday. Sadly I...

Not enough hours in the day, I'm not sure where my time goes but there is never enough of it, or perhaps it's just there is not enough of me to go around! I seem to be chasing my tail each and every day. There is so much admin to do, bugs to feed, bugs to send out, bugs arriving and I am constantly washing out cages and containers. I honestly don't know anyone else who runs an entire animal based business on their own. Most people really appreciate how hard I work but some people just expect too much. I am often moaned at for not posting something on the day it is ordered, I am highly organised, I need to be and each day is planned, I cannot slot in extra jobs or I would never get to bed at night. I feel that I have been super efficient this week. I have been desperately trying to get on top of things and to a certain extent it has worked. I have finally sorted out my 'shipping' page (information box on left of site), it now shows the countries that I post to. I ...

Eleven weeks until Christmas, that's what my daily update from Royal Mail said this morning. What a depressing thought, it has been warm and sunny today and long may it continue. I keep getting emails from Royal Mail telling me that it is the last day to post to outer Mongolia or somewhere like that. I just hope they don't decide to cancel the next day delivery guarantee on Special Delivery this year. I know the weather was pretty bad but not the entire month of December and that's how long their ban lasted (what a great excuse to not give anyone their postage back when a parcel was delayed). Anyway back to sunny October - I have had lots of new stock in this week. Yesterday I had a multitude of spiderlings arrive, I'm not sure how many species but lots! I have entered them all on the site today, it took me until 8pm last night to feed and house them all. I even dragged my husband out to the bug house to help, now that is really desperate. He didn't get involved wit...

October now and getting colder but the beginning of the month was great and on the day of the AES exhibition last Saturday, the weather was hot and sunny. I have been attending the exhibition for many years and it is generally extremely cold in the hall, so it certainly made a nice change. It was really lovely to meet so many of my customers, most of who I had only spoken to on the phone or conversed with by email. Lots of people came up and introduced themselves and this certainly made it a fun day. I took along stick insects, cockroaches and a few other animals, plus equipment. I think I got it just about right, we certainly made enough to cover the cost of the tables and some of my new purchases. I thought I had bought lots of new things but once home, I realised how little I had purchased. I proved my point to myself, it isn't really possible to buy and sell at an exhibition. I did get some interesting stick insects (yes, I know the idea was to cut down on plant eating bugs bef...