More like April Fool's Day than Halloween on Monday. I arranged for my website guy to send out my newsletter on Monday evening. I didn't realise that it needed a title, he called it November Newsletter, the only problem being that he managed to spell November and newsletter incorrectly! I was not a happy bunny when I realised but what could I do? It had already gone out to hundreds of people. The 'almost' funny bit was that in the newsletter I asked people to check my website and let me know of any mistakes as it is very difficult to proof read your own work.
We went to a super Halloween party on Sunday at my nephew's house and then on Monday I was waiting for 'trick or treat' people to call but nobody did! Evidently you need to place a pumpkin outside your house to tell people they are welcome to call, oh well we will know for next year and I get to eat all the sweets!
Since sending out the newsletter I have had some nice replies and a few good suggestions for future newsletters. I'm not sure why but it seems to be difficult to send out the letters via my website and I don't get any information on the number that I have sent or the number that have failed to be delivered. My hubby is looking into a different system as I would like to sent out regular newsletter, perhaps quarterly? If you are subscribed and did not receive the newsletter this time, please let me know. I had a number of bounce backs and undelivered notices but I think this is mostly due to people changing their email addresses. I had asked for feedback regarding the new heat packs that I started using this week. They seem to be doing well, I haven't been informed of any deaths in the post for ages. I now have three different types, some stay warm for longer so I will be using these on European orders and some are more powerful, I will use these 'if' the weather turns really cold. I love these mild temperatures and long may they last, who needs snow? Certainly not me, horrible cold stuff!
I have been re-arranging my bug house a little this week. I mentioned last week that I need to cut down on stick insects, I have way too many cages and they are eating way too many leaves. I have given myself until the end of November to sell them and then I will be putting whatever is left into three or four large cages. The great thing about stick insects is that they can all be kept together but it will mean selling them as a 'mixed batch' during the winter as I won't be able to sort out individual species. It would be impossible to keep track of what I have and list them separately on my website. I will house them together according to what they eat. If I mixed the bramble eating ones with the privet eating ones I really would have a problem sorting them out to post off. Hopefully this will result in lots of eggs hatching in the Spring when the plants start growing again, well that's the plan. There is also the little problem of trying to recognise which nymphs are which to put them back into individual cages. Oh well, my life is never boring.
My great nephew Hugo spent Tuesday helping me. He is eight years old and the only person in my entire family who likes bugs, unfortunately he lives in Luxembourg. However he is in the UK for all the school holidays so he will soon be back for Christmas. He loved the bug t-shirt that I bought him and set about on his tasks. The first one being to collect up as many loose hissing cockroaches as possible. Since their mass break out a couple of weeks ago I am finding them in every warm place, sitting on heat mats, behind cages, in the back of the fridge etc. He was collecting them in a large jar but they kept climbing back out so we had to find a lid to keep them in. I now have a heavy brick on top of the cockroaches so there will be no more escapes (I hope). We also housed up some spiderlings that came in that day. Hugo helped set up the boxes and then printed the labels and stuck some stickers on the boxes to tell me that they are small and therefore feeding on micro crickets.
I have started a new system this week. When I do the weekly feed of larger spiders I will mark those that are showing signs of imminent moulting and take them off of my website. It is sometimes hard to tell but it is such a pain when I come to send a spider and then discover it looks close to a moult. It may be another good idea of mine that turns out to be 'not so good' but we will see. The problem comes when I forget to put the spider back on the website once it has moulted but hopefully I will get used to the system. Unfortunately some spiders look 'tatty' for weeks before a moult but practice makes perfect and I have certainly had plenty of practice at watching spiders over the years. I will of course put stickers on the moulting spiders, what would I do without my multi-coloured stickers and lists for everything!
Must have another moan (I just can't help it), I cannot believe how many people state on the order that they have already placed, that they want females only. If my website states that I have 2 of whatever and the person has ordered 2 then I can only post what I have. If they are both female great but if they are a pair or both male there is nothing I can do about it! I know I am preaching to the converted on here but it causes me stress. I always do my best but I'm not Harry Potter. If I am asked in advance I won't lie, if I know the sex, I will happily tell you it. That doesn't mean that I will agree to send out all my females. I often buy animals in sexed pairs so I obviously need to sell them as sexed pairs or single males. I am rarely in a position to send out single females as most bugs lay eggs and the aim of my business is to breed as many of my own bugs as possible (I am still on the stick insect theme here, I think you all know by now that I can't sex spiders!)
Have a good week, I have started my Christmas shopping. I bought some kitchen roll with snowmen and Santas on it yesterday.
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