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"Why don't you go in for chinchillas, or minks, or even baby chicks?" friends ask the Maxwells. But the elder Maxwell had read about raising crickets, Jimmy was interested in the subject, and as his dad wanted a hobby that would give Jimmy work to do after school hours (he's in the sixth grade), they settled on cricket raising.

Fishing is a popular sport in Carroll County, Georgia, with its many lakes and streams. It is natural for Carrollton fishermen to bait with crickets, and every cricket on the hook, means money for the Maxwells.

The hobby project, now dignified by the name Suwannee Cricket Hatchery, got its modest start in the garage in Maxwell's back yard. Jimmy and his father had to do some work to convert the garage into a suitable house for their hobby. Crickets are very temperamental, they thrive at a temperature of 85 degrees—no more, no less, and you cannot deceive them. They are aware of any change. Their house has to be equipped with thermostat-controlled heating.

Looking about for brooder boxes, James Maxwell found coffin shipping boxes just right for his purpose. He arranged with local undertakers to purchase the wooden boxes in which their stocks of caskets had been shipped. "If you want to construct your own brooders," Maxwell says, "ideal brooders can be made from ½-inch thick plywood. Dimensions are: Height, two feet; width, two feet, and length, eight feet. Saw an opening in the lid about twelve by eighteen inches for ventilation and cover it with a good quality of fine screen wire."

WHEN THE Maxwells settled on crickets for a hobby, they searched the sporting magazines such as Field and Stream, and Outdoors where in the classified advertising section they found crickets advertised. They purchased 300 brood crickets for $6. Brood crickets, as Mr. Maxwell explains, come a little higher than bait crickets, as they are sold to dealers and raisers. Today the Maxwells also sell brood crickets as well as the crickets for bait. It is safer to start on a small scale, Maxwell says. He advises you to purchase a few hundred brood crickets to begin. Soon you will find your stock increasing as fast as you can learn the art of managing the hobby.

Starting on a small scale, father and son learned by experience. They soon began to enlarge their stock and to convert more boxes into brooders. Today they have 100 brooders, and more lively crickets than even Jimmy can count.

The crickets outgrew the garage, and a building which met their requirements was purchased by the Maxwells and converted into adequate quarters for 100 brooders, without crowding. This building is gas heated with thermostat-control. Electric bulbs are arranged inside each brooder near the top, for furnishing additional heat if needed. Sometimes more heat is needed in the hatching brooders, or to keep the newly hatched crickets coddled.

Cooling is also a factor in the Georgia summers. A system of ventilation and electric fans is essential for controlling temperature unless you have air conditioning. Crickets begin to droop if the thermostat registers above 85 degrees.

THE LIVELY crickets are kept inside the brooder by a simple device. The cricket cannot manipulate a slick surface, and a border of slick white paint (any exterior house paint will do for this surface) confines the crickets. Begin where the lid joins the sides and ends of the brooder, and paint about five inches down on the interior all around sides and ends. Wire screening discourages any too smart crickets which want to swarm up and camp on the lid's interior ready for escape.

The floor of the brooder is covered with coarse excelsior and a few handfuls of excelsior are formed into loose piles to give the crickets hiding space. They like to hide in the dark places. The Maxwells purchase excelsior of a very coarse type from firms which manufacture or sell excelsior. Any coarse excelsior can be used. They change the excelsior frequently.

Small trays or pans filled with any good laying mash purchased from a dealer in poultry supplies are kept in all the brooders. Crickets do not consume large quantities of mash, so put in small amounts at a time and watch to see when the supply runs low. Do not permit the mash to sour or grow stale. Everything about a cricket hatchery must be kept scrupulously clean and fresh—or you will count your losses rather than your gains.

Drinking fountains for crickets are small Mason jars, filled with clean, fresh water, and inverted over a saucer such as may be purchased from dealers in poultry supplies, or hardware stores, for a dime each. These saucers are constructed to fit the jar tops; when the jar is inverted only small amounts of water run into the saucer at a time. Fill the saucer with cotton batting, as crickets do not drink water, but stick their long snouts into the batting and suck up moisture. Again, the jars, saucers, batting must be clean.

SHALLOW PANS filled with sand are placed in brooders for "nests." The female cricket has a tiny tube attached to her body; she sticks the tube in the sand and deposits her eggs. She will lay four or five eggs daily over a period of thirty days—then she calls it a day. She either goes to feed the fish—or dies a natural death, once her life work is over.

The eggs are white and so tiny that there is no indication when the sand is filled with eggs. "You learn to use your judgment and just remove trays of sand every few days," Maxwell says. The trays go into a hatching brooder and the temperature is carefully checked. In about fifteen days the sand seems overrun with tiny ants—the baby crickets. They swarm about, eat mash and grow like all young things, preparing to fulfill their destiny.

Caring for the babies, watching the layers, starting more trays requires work and constant attention to cleanliness, and continual checking of thermostats. It is "not cricket" as the English say, to neglect your hobby, if that hobby be crickets. James Maxwell works at his hobby in spare time. Jimmy works after school, and in summers he goes on a full time salary, paid from the profits; Mrs. Maxwell, a teacher in the Carrollton schools, helps in spare time, and there is an employee available when needed.

CRICKETS ARE sold at two cents each, retail; or $10 the 1,000, wholesale. The Maxwells have a metal box about a foot square, with a slotted bottom. Handfuls of crickets are dropped in the box and all which are small enough to escape between the slots are dropped back into the brooders. Jimmy counts out the bigger ones grasping them between thumb and forefinger and dropping them into a glass container something like a test tube. When the container is filled up to a circle near the top, that will be exactly 500 crickets. But he finishes filling the tube—just good "Baptist measure" and good business to give the customer more than his money's worth, to make up for any losses.

Many crickets are sold to customers who drive by the hatchery. Others are handled by retailers in Carrollton. Mr. Maxwell visits stores in town where fishing supplies are sold. The manager is glad to keep the crickets on hand for a small percentage of the profit. Fishermen like to pick up their bait along with other supplies as it saves time. Still another method of selling is by mail. You would be surprised at the way crickets travel. Specially constructed cardboard cartons with screen wire windows are used for mailing crickets—these marked "Live Crickets." The Maxwells advertise in sports magazines—such as Field and Stream or The Fisherman—and they get orders for "Fish Bait That Fish Bite," from far away states. But they have so many local customers they can hardly keep up with mailing orders.