# Got the cricket colony started



## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

I got my first cricket colony going, although not with as many chirpies as I would have liked. Those little guys are really hard to catch! I turned two bins of compost to find them, and a lot of the ones I got were not mature breeders. It may take a little longer to raise up the juniors and get a strong breeding colony going, but at least it is a start. They need an ambient temp of at least 80-90 degrees, so no heating element needed for this time of year, for sure.

In two weeks I take the eggs out and start incubating them for two more weeks. Then there _should_ be hundreds of baby crickets.

Insects are the most efficient and economical source of protein on the planet. I intend to incorporate cricket flour into my cooking, and use them to supplement my chickens. Eventually it would be great to make my own chicken food with crickets, mesquite flour and garden scraps

I can see how this could work out well in the summer when no extra heating is needed. I don't grow a summer garden anymore - too hot and just takes too much water. I get bumper crops of everything I need or want in the winter. So maybe it will be a winter garden and summer crickets. Sounds like a good balance.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

Have you checked the price of beef lately???? The nice thing is that you never know that you're eating insects when they are ground into flour. Soups, breads, cookies/bars/brownies, spaghetti sauce, smoothies, to name a few. I'm telling you, crickets are the new sushi! They sure take up less space than a cow.


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## Casie (Feb 26, 2014)

RNprepper said:


> Eventually it would be great to make my own chicken food with crickets, mesquite flour and garden scraps
> 
> I can see how this could work out well in the summer when no extra heating is needed. I don't grow a summer garden anymore - too hot and just takes too much water. I get bumper crops of everything I need or want in the winter. So maybe it will be a winter garden and summer crickets. Sounds like a good balance.


Very cool plan!

I'm not scared of bugs, but some surprise crickets totally freaked me out last week! My guy wanted to add a new branch onto our water line to feed our new raised beds. I went to turn off the water (not at the street but at a little green plastic box near the house). I pulled the lid of the box off and what literally looked like 300 tiny black crickets poured out! I was SO not expecting that!

I said my Grandmother's favorite curse word. (it's kinda like "shoot!" but not quite.)


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

Part of my prepping plan is to build redundancy and practice whatever I can ahead of time, to take down the steep slopes of the learning curves. Like will be stressful enough without trying to figure everything out from scratch - a potentially fatal mistake when it comes to gardening, animal husbandry, food prep, water safety, etc. I try to get my family to eat all kinds of stuff. I will not have time to deal with picky appetites. They have eaten all kinds of native desert foods, pack rat soup, crocodile, rattlesnake, rabbit, organ meats, game birds, large game, and cricket bars. Getting past the initial bite is always the hardest. But I really do not think there is anything I could cook now that they would not eat or help prepare, including butchering. I have a prepper friend who can't get her kids to eat anything that is green colored. Can you imagine? My kids better eat green, brown, purple, orange, magenta, and chartreuse, with or without legs and antennae! Food will not be a stressor for our family.


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