Ok so I have to manually pull the little buggers one at a time out of their holding pen, and through them in another container with some calcium powder, before doing the shake and bake thing with them at feeding time.

I was just wondering if someone else may not have come up with an easier solution rounding the hoping little buggers up, that is more efficient than my trying to grab 'em one at a time?

sure do. In the container I keep them in, i have a 60 watt bulb in a shop light sitting on top. They LOVE to bask under it, so under the light I place a little bit of cardboard egg carton. When its time to gather, i pick up the cardboard and shake them off into a plastic baG. Add vitamins.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

hey..
There do make these feeder containers for crix, They are a little plastic box with a lid, and a door on the lid so you can put your crickets inside the container. Then they have a long tube that sits at an angle half inside the plactic box, and half outside the box. So when you need some feeders your just pull out that skinny tube and shake them into the bag that you have your calcium in. I've never used one personally, so I'm not sure if they work really well, but we sell them at the pet store I work at. You could also put a piece of egg carton, or maybe a cardboard tube from a roll of TP, and shake them from the cardboard into your bag.
I donno..I just catch mine, lol. I'm pretty used to I guess from hand counting out hundreds at a time sometimes at work..haha
Good Luck!
-manda

Heres a link to something like what I'm explaining.

Kritter Keepers & Cricket Containers

A couple of excellent ideas there, thanks!