Egg Flats

[Dakotachristy84]

I just found a great deal on egg flats. holds 30 eggs. not that anybody here will be using them for eggs but they are the super pocket egg flats. like the ones for geese and turkey eggs i guess. they are deeper then normal egg flats. any how it's a case of 140 for $12 they get you on the shipping though. still i checked 5 or 6 other sites and that's the cheapest i found shipped to me. I spent $29.04 for shipping and everything. i don't know what i am going to do with 140 crates i only use 7 in my roaches and 3 half ones in my crickets but they are always getting eatten. anyway if anybody else can find some place cheaper let me know. thanks so much.

 

[diggerdrake]

I ordered some a while back from bug depot it was like $5 for 25 but I had some feeders coming in too so the shipping wasn't too bad. I still have at least 10 or so. But I don't do crix anymore so they don't get eaten up

 

[Dakotachristy84]

i am only doing the crix until my other colonies start going. i have a colony of roaches that have some babies and superworms that i am morphing about almost 200 beetles so far i think i have 10 morphs'. i think its easier for the baby newborn dragons to eat crix's then roaches.

 

[zebraflavencs]

I just go down to the local Waffle house, or same kind to pick up once a week (did that two weeks ago, and planning to make a run this week). They will hold them, if you ask nicely, otherwise it is just trash for them, and free ! Though you may want to have a meal or snack there just to make them happy !
Janie.

 

[Dakotachristy84]

that's cool that they give them to you free. i didn't even think to check out freecycle.org. i think that's what it's called. it a website that is pretty much all over US. you have to sign up for each city you want to post things in or things you want to to look for. it's really neat. i got my dad 2 Conures(birds). didn't have to pay anything. you just have to watch, i think a lot of people use that site to get free stuff then turn around and sell it.

 

[kmc5]

Can you use the foam cartons or do they need to be the paper ones?

 

[Dakotachristy84]

i am not really sure if i could use the foam cartons. i was thinking about getting the plastic egg flats but they want like $1.50 a flat. Now that i am thinking about it that might have been a better way to go. then if they got to dirty i would just need to wash them off. oh well. i don't think i'll need them for a while. sometimes it's easier to just throw things away rather then try and wash them out. the crix might try and eat through them anyway/

 

[diggerdrake]

plastic ones may not provide good footing for the roaches to climb into. foam just seems like it would easily harbor bacteria. although the paper ones probably do too. but they are from recycled paper and more energy efficient in the process when they make them. foam and plastic already fill up our landfills already without the ability to degrade readily. being green I would stick with the paper ones. besides they are cheap enough that throwing a few away wouldn't really break the bank. even with shipping the paper egg flats only comes to about 20 cents each. not a bad deal when you see most charge about $1 and up each for 5. but 140 is a grip though. but you will have flats for a long time.

 

[Dakotachristy84]

i wouldn't use the foam ones but the plastic ones are reuseable and i wouldn't be throwing them out just washing them but i am going to stick with the paper ones. i figure i am only going to need to change them out once in a while. the ones in my cricket cage got wet and i need to throw them out before they start to kill off my crix. i need the babies cuz of feed newborn dragons. i've got 20 out of 23 eggs. first timer. plus i can cut the paper ones in half which is what i use in the crix tank so the little buggers can't jump out then i just pick it up and shake them into a plastic baggy where i try and sort the bigs ones out from the little ones. it's kind of hard but it works.

 

[Tigg]

You can also try your local bakery... they've always got loads laying around. and the drink trays from fast food joints work great too.

 

[clear]

Call around to different places that cooks eggs in the morning and ask them to old on to them for you.

 

[patrickb]

I thought about buying some of those cheap plastic ice cube trays from the dollar store and using them. You would need to sand em down a bit to create some texture so the roaches could climb them, but something like that or the plastic egg flats would work fine if you sanded them I think. Plus you could just pop em in the dishwasher or whatever. I just happen to have a plentiful supply of egg flats some work so I never got around to doing that.

 

[GlaedrAg]

There was a thread not long ago that had a discussion about using used egg flats from a restaurant. A concern that was mentioned more than once was the possiblity those flats are carrying bacteria from the eggs. I believe one person said that Salmonella can be transferred if an egg cracks...which they tend to do if not handled properly.

I'm interested in doing this too if there's a safe way to go about it. Is there a way to sanitize used egg flats to make them safe?