Now that you know what our farm looks like let’s shift focus to its most important inhabitants, the crickets. We will go through a whole lifecycle of a cricket on our farm from incubation all the way to adulthood.
Incubation
The life of a cricket starts with an egg. The egg spends about a week in the incubation room which is very hot and humid to provide the most suitable environment.
Hatching
After the first week the egg is moved to the hatching room which is much cooler. In about 2-3 days in this room the new born crickets hatch.
Sub-adulthood
When the cricket is one day old it is moved to the breeding room, the one with all of the blue boxes. It spends most of its life here. We feed it and give it water here. It moves around and hides in the egg cartons provided. At 32 days old the cricket reaches sub-adulthood which is the ideal harvest time for crickets.
Hibernation
Crickets selected for harvest are moved to the processing part of the farm where they are cooled until they hibernate. Hibernation is a natural process that they go through on a particularly cold morning for example. Their whole metabolism slows down to a halt at which point they can be harvested via freezing in the most ethical way possible.
Adulthood
The other crickets not selected for harvest reach adulthood. This is where they start eating a lot more but don’t grow. Instead, they accumulate energy to lay eggs and give birth to a new generation.
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