Tips for moving pinheads from shipping box into cricket keeper?

[Gentlemangorath]

I've just run out of pinheads, so I ordered another batch off of Premiumcrickets. They ship the crickets in a slim rectangular box, however, and with 500 pinhead crickets in a box to transfer, it proved to be difficult to move them. I was hoping someone might have some ideas as to an efficient way to move them (as opposed to just opening the box and hoping we can shake them in), in order to keep the number of crickets lost to a minimum so if anyone has any ideas or tips that work I'd really appreciate it.

[Mentat]

Get a box that is big enough for egg cartons to be shaken inside and make a small hole in bottom corner that will let crickets pass. Then locate box with hole over container you plan to keep crickets. Take each egg carton out, shake into box, watch them fall into your keeper. Rinse and repeat until all shipping egg cartons are done. Good luck !

[flybyferns]

Yes it's a pain to transfer them
It's even a bigger pain to clean the bin next week ! ( keep more than one bin on hand)
Like Carlos has mentioned, simply remove the lid to the cricket shipping container , while it's in the freshly prepared cricket bin bin and discard the yuckie parts they were shipped with.

It will not look like 500 crickets.

A 30-35 Qt rubber maid storage bin, or 2, makes a good size cricket bin. Melt lots of ventilation holes in the lids.

To clean the bin, rolled up clean paper towel works great. Let them climb in and then carefully transfer them from the dirty bin to the clean bin. This takes some time to accomplish.


http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...et-helper.html ( if you should need it)

[Gentlemangorath]

I've actually got a large cricket keeper already, the ones with the black tubes in it for the crickets to hide in (the large one with 4 tubes), so I don't need to make a keeper, but thank you for the recommendations. I hate to ask, but could you elaborate on the egg carton trick? Am I placing the open shipping box in a larger tub/box with open egg cartons inside, then closing the cartons, and shaking those into the keeper? I was kind of thinking of cutting a box in the side of the rectangular box and then sort of just shaking them into the keeper, but I figured I'd try to see what other people do. Thank you both for the tips though .

[flybyferns]

Hi Abraham,
Sorry , I didn't realize you were transferring them into a cricket keeper.
I believe a lg cricket keeper is too small for 500 pin head crickets.
You may find keeping them in a lager bin will be easier to care for them.
Just a thought

One of the links in the 'Cricket Helper' above has photos members posted of their bins.
Hope this helps more.
Lynn

[Sasha]

I've just run out of pinheads, so I ordered another batch off of Premiumcrickets. They ship the crickets in a slim rectangular box, however, and with 500 pinhead crickets in a box to transfer, it proved to be difficult to move them. I was hoping someone might have some ideas as to an efficient way to move them (as opposed to just opening the box and hoping we can shake them in), in order to keep the number of crickets lost to a minimum so if anyone has any ideas or tips that work I'd really appreciate it.

I just did this the other day and swore the whole time I did it! I found a cricket climbing on my shower curtain an hour later! I use a 5 gallon tank for my pinheads but after this might move to a 10 gallon. I found doing the transfer in the bathtub with the drain plugged is the best route since the ones that don't make it into the tank right away will just hang out in the tub until I scoop them up.

Watching my little guys eat 3 crickets at a time, I'm thinking next shipment is going to be the next size up!

[Heatheranne]

I use a 10 gallon tank with a screen lid. Easy to clean. The box is small enough to fit into the 10 gallon. Just shake them in. Tip the 10 gallon at an angle and any dead crickets or feces will slide to one end. I scoop them out with gloves.

I just tap the egg cartons over a plastic cup to get some for feeding. You can add your calcium or mvi pinch to the cup and give it a swirl or two to lightly coat. I just get an inexpensive pack of 5" smooth plastic cups from Walmart. That way if you have to set them down for a minute that don't climb out.