keeping crabs alive

[JJER]

Requesting y'all's(that be southern for youse guys) knowledge/experience on how to keep your freshly caught crabs.  I  crab from shore for about eight hours then drive home about two hours. I've always kept my crabs in fresh water that they've come from(every 30 minutes) until I start home . Then I've emptied the water and laid bags of ice on top and bottom. What do you think? Thanx.

[tattoo]

as long as the water from the ice can drain and they need to get some air, they should be ok. i leve the ice in the bag when I put it in with the crabs.

[onyme]

I've kept them alive for more than 24 hours just by making sure they were in a cool area of the house, they weren't immersed in water, and they were able to keep their gills moist.

See this post for more suggestions:

http://www.blue-crab.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=9984935abea7674c62138216b32faa07&topic=10715.new

[JJER]

Thanks very much for the replies. Good so far.

[masspi]

Guys..........

I keep them alive long enough to get them to the house...............steam...........freeze.........eat at my leisure after re-steaming...........it works, no one refuses to eat my crab 

[The Claw ^<*_*>^]

When crabbing I keep my crabs alive in an old wooden bushel basket that i got from a farmer friend of mine. What I do is every 1/2 hour or so I pour a fresh bucket of salt water on them to keep their gills moist. If I am going to travel with them I will put them in a cooler with a layer of ice on the bottom. I then cover that ice with a wet burlap bag (I got that from the farmer also) and put the crabs in. I then put another wet burlap bag on top of them, with another thin layer of ice on top of that. But be sure to leave the plug on the cooler opened, or empty occasionally if you can't leave it open so they don't drown.
I also leave the cooler cracked for air as well. This has always seemed to work well for me.

[dfran]

I think the claw has it nailed :)Sounds perfect to me.

[santacruzdockrat]

 What I just started doing I picked up from a local in Santa Cruz, CA.
To keep em alive on the dock and on the way home, put about 6- 8 inches of water in a 5 gallon bucket.
Can be fresh or salt for that matter, the crabs aren't that picky. Take an old twin bed sheet and cut it width wise in 8 inch wide strips. Soak these in the water .. Then when you pull a crab put him on the bottom of the bucket, and lay one of the strips on top of him. As you get more crabs pull up some of the material to layer the crabs between and it will keep them from seeing each other and the crabs settle down as its like laying in kelp beds on the ocean bottom. 
This also keeps them from fighting, and allows you to not have to worry about having a lid on the bucket as the water doesn't slosh.
Worked great on my last trip as it is a 30 mile trip home through the mountains, and they sat in the bucket for about 2 hours more when we got home.. They were sluggish but alive when they hit the pot.

[Crab A Lot]

I think the claw has it nailed :)Sounds perfect to me.

         I agee with the claw also and feel the majority of crabber keep their crabs alive this way until their home and start steaming them.

    Crab a lot!

[tattoo]

The CLAW has the best way of doing it. will last for a good amount of time.