Where to house all my CRIX and need ideas on set ups

Hey...I have begun breeding my crix for my own use as well as a few local stores and people i have successfully hatched 2 batches and have a few tubs incubating. Now i have rubbermaids all about my house LOL a breeeding one 2 feeders and babies growing in3 tubs ....I have a basement I like to call it a crawl space LOL as well as a LOFT thats huge an be ideal for starting this lil project the thing i am unsure about is this...basemwnt is a lil on the cool side as it is underground..will they thrive well down there if it gets damp and come summer its alot cooler down there than the rest of the house.....MY LOFT is HIOt and stuffy and wasnt sure if i had fans going if theyd be ok or all die(hot makes them smell i do know this) My worry in both these situations is I dont want my hard work to all DIE by putting them in either location! ANY help be GREAT.

Another question I have is does anyone have ideas on SET ups for this cause it seems i have tubs every which way and no organization Id like to get into a groove and have it well organized but no clue on how or what a crickett set up supposed to look like

Sorry for my long post everyone

Mecca

 

I think I would have 4 or 5 tubs, depending on how many sizes you want to offer and the volume you want to create! I have about 1000-2000 adults in a 10 gal that I use for breeders/feeders. Then I have two buckets... One for 1/2"-3/4" and another one for hatchlings...

The problem I've had is getting them to grow! I have them at room temp, I think that is why. I recently started a new formula of food I've heard spurts their growth and is a great "gutload" to build up their guts... haha. I take 10 parts milk to 1 part calcium powder. Mix it up and then coat cat food with it. The cat food absorbs teh calcium and moisture, they fight over the stuff! I also put oats in and before I feed them off I put some fresh greens in there. I noticed once my dragon ate an big fat cricket and I saw green guts in his mouth, so I guess it worked very well!

Once I get this process down, I'll let you know what works best. I think 85-88F is the best temp. If your loft is around there. You could keep the breeders in the crawl space, they'd be good down there.

Kory

 

LOl mine always ooze greeen its ummm gross for me neway the herps love it...so far my hachlings are on a heat pad not too sure when to remove them??? maybe after they hatch who knows im lost but expirimenting...

Are you separating your sizes? How many tubs do you have in your breeding tank for them to lay in?

My crawl space is chilly all year...My breeders will do ok down there and lay eggs in the cool damp that be hella awesome i just wana clarify that

I think my loftcan get hotter than that in dead of summer and stuff thats why thought if i put fans up there if that would suffice?

Sorry Kory for all the questions lol

 

Arg, just typed a whole thing out and it got lost! doh!

Anyway, as long as the temps are above 68 in your crawl space, the crix should be fine down there... below that I don't think they will survive. As for the loft, as long as the temps don't stay over 95 or so for an extended period of time, they should be fine. Fans wont help because they'll just circulate the hot hair.

I only had a batch of 1500 eggs so far. I hatched them a month ago and they're just over 1/4"... thats how slow they're growing! I wish I my silkies would hatch, but looks like this batch is no good. I'll have to pull out the next dish and see if those work.

Kory

 

Wow you got your crix counted lol i couldnt begin to know how many eggs hatched I had 2 tubs incubate and hatch around the same time and one started to hatch yesterday.Wonder why they are growing so slowly? I have mine on a heat pad still feed them dragon shack gutload greens and carrots/potatoes. I have tonnes of shed inside the hacthlings tub but damn cant remove it for I might squich the lil buggers if i move anything as it is I have a hard time replacing carrots and greens they all seem so fragile lol
Im going to have so many hatchling tubs lol as I have one incubating 4 inside the breeders and well the 4 tubs of adults feederes and babies LOL keeping me quite busy. Have you cleaned your hatchling tub if so how without killing them? and is it ok to take them off heat once theyve hatched as I still have mine on heat. And as far as your breeders go do you keep dirt in there all the time?

Good luck on the silkies i was told at a recent expo its difficult to start from scratch easier to buy the eggs! I may try it out next expo and get sum eggs.

Im starting to try and breed supers as well...i have a lot of people in my area I could sell too in regards to feeders!!!

Thanks again kory

 

You're going to have a hell of a lot of crix lol. I havn't cleaned the hatchling tub at all except for removing old food. I had a little bit of dirt in the bottom, which seemed to keep sludge from building up, but that is about it.
I really wonder how many pinheads I'll get out of this next batch because last time I had about 1500 hatch, it looks like 5X the amount of eggs for the same container! Eggs are coating the surface and the outside rim... there has to be at least 3000 probably around 5000... Maybe I won't need to buy crix for the rest of my life haha.

Good luck with distributing the crix! Are you buying tons of milk flats? I always seem to have extra around, but it looks like I'm going to run out soon, but I don't want to buy 100 milk flats since they only sell them in bulk! Oh well, I'll figure something out.

Kory

Kory

 

MILK flats no idea what that is lol I been useing egg crates or cartons for em!! But need sum in a big way Just have no idea where to get em cause once i start distributing them ill need a lot! as well i need those boxes that they come in screen sides etc again no idea where to get those either...have any idea where to get both things? and as for milk flats what r they lmao im clueless i suppose and are they eaier and better for crix
Freakin right ill have tonnes but im gonna sell them so ill need to keep producing them

thanks again Kory

 

I meant egg flats... that is the same as the egg crates... I don't know what I was thinking lol...

Good luck with the selling! Not many distributors in Canada!

Kory

 

Thanks hopign it goes well myself just a newbie though got lots to learn so I can keep producing large numbers of the annoying things lol they are needed here as they are shipped far and I think I could do well locally anyway! Just need to know where to get egg flats and crickett boxes Oh and the obvious a constant supply of crix. LOL im not even sure where to start marketting etc just lost at the moment

TY have a great night Kory

lemme know how your breeding works and does as well curious about the silkies

 

I have also recently begun trying to breed crickets. Another thread here recomended this site
http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html
with suggestions for breeding crickets.
I am just now starting to try to breed crickets myself, so I don't know a lot about how it works, but it looks fairly simple and is contained in a reasonably small space. I hope things go well for you.

 

Well so far so good Ive had to tubs hatch 3 weeks ago all doing well and growing I have 2 breeder tubs that constantly lay a feeder tub for my guys and 3 inbubating and one hatching as I type So its going well easy as pie really just maintanence of the hatchlings moisture wise etc I hope to do well and keep a constant supply for myself and a few other places interested!
I hope you do well as well any tips and such please share

 

Thanks. So far, I have bunches of eggs in a little cup. I have not had any hatch yet. . . but I have researched and learned why my last attempts did not work (I let them dry out) so maybe this time
They were laid about a week ago, and I just took the first cup full of eggs out this morning, and put two others in it's place. Actually, I'm trying to see just how much of this I can fit in and on a ten gallon aquarium. I have a feeling that soon I will have more crickets than I know what to do with though.

 

Well, I saw my first hatchling cricket today, and I expect that a bunch more will be hatching soon. From your experience, what would you all consider to be the most important things to do to raise hatching crickets?

 

Well My first batch are now just a few days shy of 4 weeks old and thriving! I wasnt huge on misting the dirt once they started to hatch for fear of drowning them...i make sure they have fresh greens crushed cherrios and lots of egg crates for them to hide in and I have a sponge in with them to that needs to be tended too and cleaned..Dont let it dry out...the greens loose moisture easily so always keep the sponge damp! I also put slices of butternut squash and baby carrots as variety.
I kept them on a heat pad for 2 weeks as well

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will hold off on misting. . . maybe that is why I only have one so far . I was expecting that there would be a whole bunch at once when they started hatching. Am kind of surprised that there is only one so far. I have rolled seven grain (kind of like rolled oats, but seven different kinds of grains) and fish flakes for food right now and some damp paper towels and vegetables for moisture. I am also trying to keep their temperature in the 80's. I have one egg crate in there right now, and four more that I could put in there. I've kind of been waiting to see that more are hatching first though.

 

They will Ive had a few tubs and for the first day Id see one tiny one it wasnt til the next day I was able to see them! some times it takes a whole week to hatch them all so you'll have a few different sizes Just keep the tub on heat and after they have all hatched wait a week or so and remove the heat they will die quicker etc with too much heat. Do you have a lid on the tub at all?

 

Actually, I have them in a ten gallon aquarium, with a screen over the top, and a towel over most of the screen right now to keep the humidity up in there. The eggs were laid in three different small cups, like single serving applesauce bowls with various types of soil. One is a sand and sawdust mixture, one is from my mom's potting soil bag, and the third is just garden dirt. To keep them from drying out, I am keeping a damp paper towel on the floor of the aquarium. I've had my temperaatures a little on the low end for incubating because I didn't want to accidentally fry the eggs, and my heating wasn't consistant. I up the temp when I am around to keep an eye on things. That may be partly why they are taking such a long time. I did have two more hatch, so that now there are a total of three running around. Also, my eggs that I can see on top are beginning to go from a clearish look to getting some darker coloring to them. I hope that this is a good sign, and not a sign that I got them too wet and they died.

Thanks for all your encouraging comments. I appreciate your suggestions and help.

One more question; How high can they hop when they first hatch? So far, I have only seen three of them running around.

 

They are not good hoppers/climbers if you notice them take a clear tape(ducktape) and put it all around the top the tape is too slippery usually to geta grip I actually had to end up misting a batch today the soil looked dry but I made sure no babies were on the top as Ive done b4 and that works...The only reason there shouldnt be more haching is if it was a small bacth(not many eggs laid) my last batch happened that way not near as many hacted or eggs werre laid as previous

Good Luck Im happy to share my expiriences

 

So far they seem to be doubling about every 12 hours, so I think that is good. Just now, I counted 40, and I'm sure there were a few that I missed. They seem to like to hide under a damp paper towel that I have laying over the dirt better than they like the egg cartons and food area. I haven't noticed any real climbers yet. The sides of a ten gallon aquarium are quite slick. I've seen a couple maybe 1/2 inch up the corner where it is glued together, but that's about it.

 

really they double every 12 hours?