Transferring Between Boxes.
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The crickets need to be moved from one type cage to the next. This keeps the smell down and provides a more sanitary environment.
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Transferring the pinhead crickets (cage #1 to cage #2) is easy. Simply remove the ELBs and water supply. Lift up a short edge of the paper enough to hold onto and start flicking the paper with your finger. Continue flicking until all the paper is out of the cage. Do a quick inspection of the paper to be sure none are still sticking. Tilt the box onto a bottom corner and gently tap the box on the floor to congregate most of the crickets into a corner. Dump food and all into a prepared cage #2. Use a paintbrush in the old box to move any that are still in cage #1 and add to cage #2. Date cage #2 with today’s date and estimated mature date (generally 30 days).
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To transfer from cage #2 to cage #3, remove everything from cage #2 except the crickets, frass and uneaten food. Remove he paper. In a prepared cage #3 add a platform that the crickets will be dumped onto and the crickets will jump off. The platform is a 3” tall piece of 3” pvc pipe and on this sits a lid from a large coffee can. Next tilt the cage#2 so one corner is much lower and tap it on the ground. Most of the crickets will end up in the corner. Slowly dump everything onto the platform. The crickets will jump off into the new cage. If the frass is thick, stirring it with a pencil will help the buried crickets escape. Allow the lid with the frass to stay in the cage for 24 hours. Crickets that are ready to molt cannot move and this gives them the chance to emerge and jump into the cage.
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Transferring from a cage #3 or #4 is trickier because now the crickets can jump away easily. I use what I refer to as the lemming approach. Set a closed cardboard box of the correct height next to an empty 50 qt. container that has a “transfer shield" sitting on it. The cardboard box is even with the rim of the collar or just a bit higher. Working with the box with crickets to be transferred, remove everything except the crickets, frass and loose food. Set the box with crickets on the cardboard box and turn the cricket box on end so the crickets pour out into the empty container. See picture below. Most crickets will run for the edge and fall into the empty box like a mythical habit of a bunch of lemmings. Some will remain behind. I use a 1” paint brush to encourage their movement and then sift through the frass and flick the stubborn ones into the empty box. If there is a lot of frass, I will pour the remaining frass with crickets into a kitchen sieve placed in a close fitting container and then sieve out the smaller pieces of frass. The remaining crickets and frass are returned to their original cage and allowed to escape off the end like before. See pictures for details of everything. Once in the new container, they can be transferred to the next cage or weighed to be donated or sold.
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Crickets being transferred. The rearing cage on the right is tipped on its side. Crickets run over the edge and slide down the inclined piece into the bin below. This leave most of the frass and discarded skins behind.