How to Breed Crickets: hatching pinheads, extended version

[@elizabethkelso6558]

Your videos are awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your processes. As someone just starting out in crickets you have really inspired me.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Thanks so much for watching! :-)

[@MrsValheru]

Thank you for sharing this video! I’m starting a very small scale breeding bin for my two leopard geckos, so I really appreciate this video and how to.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

awesome!! Congrats on starting up your colony. Please don't hesitate with any questions as they come up. Happy to help troubleshoot.

[@Crystal-ck1nv]

Thank you so much!!! My 10 yr old son and I are going to start breeding them TODAY 🥹 This took so much anxiety away from doing it all wrong. I also appreciate your honesty and humor about responding to everything but if anyone says anything about your watering, they’ll get a snarky response 🤣🤣🤣 I love it!

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

YAY! How is it going so far? Any luck? Anything I can help with?

[@easymac79]

19:11 I used to work on a farm and we had to label trays. If you place one piece of duct tape of a light color, you can write on it with sharpie, and then erase with a cotton ball and isopropyl alcohol. I found this to be much easier than masking tape. May also be biologically safer since paper can harbor bacteria, a freshly sanitized vinyl surface will not.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

OOOH! I like this. I think we need to try this out. I would have never thought of that. Thanks so much for the tip!

[@angelogalloway4693]

Thank you so much for your time and sharing. Are you using organic potatoes?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Thank you for watching! They aren't organic potatoes, but those would work. We've also found celery to be really popular

[@jeffleverett4975]

Do you keep the entire room at a certain temperature? And/ Or are you heating the bins?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Yes! The entire room is kept at the same temp. I haven’t experimented with separately heated bins.

[@Stephen-gp8yi]

Hi I’ve just started to try and raise pinheads.I’ve started giving them pro biotic powder and banana peel apple or carrot for hydration.i also use vermiculite as substrate as it stops the smell.also I put in egg cartons and toilet roll cores.i do change the fruit daily!is that ok in your opinion?

[@jakeswitzer8834]

What is the ground feed very good vedio

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Thank you! Insect diet from BioForge Labs

[@isaacwani9477]

Thanks so much for video, your pretty loving nice to follow for all educative cricket practice

[@christophercreekmore5885]

Thank you for the knowledge. What do you feed them. I see it's some kind of powder.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

It’s the Non-GMO insect diet blend from BioForge Labs in Huxley, IA.

[@marjiescott2302]

You are amazing! I love what you do.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Thank you! Thanks for watching.

[@LuisRodriguez-bw7vd]

Amazing! How many KG ( crickets) you can produce monthly in your farm before dehydrating?

[@mobileplayers5008]

I've successfully breeded banded crickets and house crickets together. The male is house cricket and female is banded cricket. It was an experiment but really successed. The pinheads was half banded and half house cricket. Black/white/brown lol. It kinds of funny mixed.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Oh wow! I didn’t know that was possible. Most entomologists I’ve spoke to tell me that cross breeding them isn’t possible. They’re too dissimilar or something like that. That’s way above my knowledge base!

[@ashleysarabia3120]

​@@BuildingInASmallTownI've tried breeding house crickets about a year ago, and recently found wild crickets that were pregnant. Both of the times I had eggs that were incubating the incubator bins suddenly had an outbreak of Spider mites from the EcoEarth. I don't know how they got in the house but I have that issue again, as of this week. How do I kill bugs like that without killing the cricket eggs? The last time with the house crickets I had to dump them. All 60+ and I haven't had luck anymore. But I hope this time they hatch. Your help will be much appreciated.

[@allencatoe3222]

Shelby, thank you again for all of your information. Would you mind sharing what you feed your crickets, other than the potatoes? I've been buying cricket feed in a jar at Pet Smart, but that's kind of expensive.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Thanks so much for watching! I feed them an insect diet with meat. It's sourced from BioForge Labs. Another good option is organic or non-GMO chicken feed (finely ground is best). It will be much cheaper than the cricket chow at Petsmart. Hope this helps!

[@katiestine6600]

With the water what do I need I see rubber lids and a mason jar? Can u elaborate more on where I can get the things for the water please

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Farm stores! Or amazon/other internet sources. you're looking for plastic bases for automatic chicken waterers. Very common and widely available.

[@ts334]

How can I get lower humidity in my incubator? After a few minutes there is always a bit of moisture on the window of my egg incubator. Do I need to keep the soil with the eggs wet? It's my first time hatching eggs so I don't know if it will work. The temperature is about 34°C constantly. Nice video's by the way!

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Hi!! Thanks so much for watching. Do you have ventilation holes in your incubator? If not, you’ll definitely need some. If you do, make them larger and/or take the top off for an hour or so each day to see if that helps. Once you get the air-exchange balance correct, that should help.

[@mdmarmd]

I have been trying to find a ground chick starter feed online and can only find the crumbles. Do you know of a brand? Or can the crumbles be ground up with a Cuisinart?

[@mainegrower]

What media is in your laying bins? I tried some with top soil and they laid but seems dry below the top surface

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

I use peat moss (make sure you get it without fertilizer). I've used top soil, but am not a fan. Peat moss holds moisture better than anything I've used.

[@morrishinton1891]

My newly hatched pinheads are climbing out of the tub. I've put 3 rows of packing tape around the sides of the top and then added another layer of tape up and over the edges of the bins. Surely there is some method to keep the little buggies in their bin that doesn't cost a fortune. Please HELP!!!

[@katiestine6600]

Hey girl how do u know how many u put in per bin? Like how can u tell how many r in the measuring device just by looking at it? I know u put a ounce in each bin but what does a ounce equal to?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

I usually put 15 grams per bin. If I have more than that, sometimes I over populate them, but never more than 20 grams per bin.

[@gregboshell977]

I am fixing to start with 50 crickets this week so l should have some for sale by may what do you think?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Depends on how many you need! If you are thinking you'll have thousands and thousands for sale by May, I think you might be disappointed. Tell me a little more about your set up? How warm are you keeping them? Do you need to grow them for something or are you just looking to sell them? I would say that you can probably be producing a few thousand by May if everything goes well. But, you'll likely be hatching those few thousand in May, meaning they won't be mature until June-ish.

[@carmenthompson4298]

So how would I get rid of humidity fast? A fan?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Exhaust fan & dehumidifier work great for me!

[@ColossalSwordFormAndTechnique]

What is the heat source? Heating cable, heat mat, heat lamp? 🤔

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

I have 3 milk house heaters (electric space heaters) in a 600 sq ft space. The entire room is kept at 87 degrees with them.

[@matthewpilkington7901]

Im looking to start my own small fatm and im very interested in making cricket flour. Anyone know of the best ways to sell such a product. In the UK

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

The laws and regs vary WILDLY by state and country.

[@lolo9fo]

How many crickets would you say is in 1 oz of pinheads

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Roughly 10k from what I've heard from others. I assume you mean 1 fluid oz, right? otherwise, I assume 1-1.5k per gram (but weight varies by humidity levels, so it's not terribly accurate)

[@922crappiebbq8]

Good to see you fishing

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Haven't been fishing in years!

[@jefferyjones7]

Can you make a video on watering your cricket

[@beauevans3929]

still doing them? @building

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Crickets? Yep!

[@TheCritterHouse2008]

how do i keep my humity up?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Add a humidifier if necessary. Do you know what it’s at right now?

[@TheCritterHouse2008]

@@BuildingInASmallTown no clue they were just recetly laid

[@Biological11223]

how many crickets should survive in a good way, as a percentage of pinheads to adults?

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Good question! A good first milestone is to get your mortality rates below 50%. If you can get below 30%, you're doing really well. It takes a lot of experimentation to see what your carrying capacity of your set up is.

[@Biological11223]

@@BuildingInASmallTown thank you very much!!

[@Biological11223]

Hi, I'm raising crickets to feed my bearded dragons. I'm from the south of Russia. My English sucks, so I write through Google translator. In Russia, no one grows crickets for food, only for exotic animals and birds. I have a few questions: 1. How much humidity is needed for pinheads? 60%? 65%? 2. Is your water for crickets being cleaned? in Russia, water is purified with chlorine, in America it seems like fluoride. 3. Do you add vitamin C to the water or any useful supplements? so that the exoskeleton of the pinheads is well formed

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Your English is better than my Russian! :-) 1. 65-70% for pinheads should be great. Be on the lookout for condensation at higher humidity. It's really bad for them. 2. The water for my cricket barn comes from a well, so, it's not treated. We have it tested 2x per year to make sure there's not anything causing issues. You'll want to leave your water out on the counter/in the open before putting it in with your crickets if it's treated with chlorine. This allows the chlorine to naturally evaporate. Your crickets will thank you! 3. I've heard anecdotally that the addition of some electrolytes helps the crickets grow faster, but it's not something I have personally experimented with. Hope this helps!

[@Biological11223]

@@BuildingInASmallTown thank you very much!!!

[@mobileplayers5008]

You feed pinheads tofu. They"ll have better exoskeletons. It been written on Google and I tried it lol. It worked.

[@GarickChan]

Idea for controlling lost crickets.. release small lizards and/or snakes? And then something to eat the lizards/snakes, something to eat those and on and on and on like the children's song goes!

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Yes! There are actually a few farms that I know of that have free-range bearded dragons running around. Such a great solution!

[@flutescope]

I do wonder if it's worth all the work of separating, measuring and putting them back together. What metric do you have to estimate survival rates? I think there's always some death and cannibalism that are very hard to measure. I prefer to not do all that work and ditch the incubator bin completely, by placing the soil trays into definitive bins and letting them just hatch into a readily furnished bin. Your method has the advantage of a better age and size uniformity. I only leave soil trays with the adults for laying for one day and hatching times still vary by up to five days or so. At smaller scale, eggs aren't really a limiting factor if you keep a good sized reproductive adult population to keep laying them. I just ballpark that and let them start a little overpopulated maybe, they stabilize themselves, it's a cricket eat cricket world. I assume at your scale it starts making sense to cut on the losses and keep things uniform. Just thoughts. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

Super interesting thoughts! Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to share them. For me, experimenting with population densities and understanding the efficiency of my space under different conditions has been super important as I grow and scale my business. In particular, as I bring on new growers. They need to know what to expect and what targets to hit as they improve their own efficiency. If you don't measure something, you can't manage it (as I scale, management and predictability become super important). If none of those are things you're concerned with, then your method would absolutely be preferred! Thanks again for watching and sharing your thoughts. If you ever have any other questions, happy to help :-)

[@nickford5549]

Banana peels is another way to get cheap moisture also

[@BuildingInASmallTown]

I’m going to test out pumpkin this fall.