You know the insect world is a pretty brutal place. Raising crickets has really opened my eyes to this observation. I was telling the cattle team the other day to imagine if cattle were like crickets, the adult cows would eat the calves if you kept them together in the same paddock. And if you kept the cattle for too long in the pasture, they would eat each other. That’s the difference between cattle ranching and cricket ranching. As the crickets grow, it’s important to monitor each bin to see if they are laying eggs. Once the eggs are laid, it is very important to remove the mudpie tin where they lay them so the adults don’t eat the eggs or the hatching baby crickets. Once the crickets have laid eggs, they can lay another round of eggs, but the time it takes to do this leaves you open to more time for cricket cannibalism. When the feedstock is low in the bin or there’s no where to hide like the egg trays, the crickets turn to each other to supplement their diet. Even they know that they’re nutritious! This is problematic if you are raising them for feed since every cricket counts toward your bottom line. Crickets have an amazing feed to protein ratio with just 1.3 lbs of feed to get 1lb of cricket protein. And when you consider water use, raising crickets is extremely water-wise with as little as 1 gallon of water needed to get a pound of cricket. That’s amazing! A gallon of water and just over a pound of feed can get you some highly nutritious cricket with 60% protein providing a complete amino acid profile. As a good source of iron, zinc, and other micro nutrients, cricket farming makes perfect sense for our Fish Food Project.