I'd use a plastic bin, or something that's easy to clean regularly (something you can flip over and beat the bottom of). Don't try to pick females and males and make it a ratio, just get 1,000 (or more) and let them situate who's gonna mount who. If you're keeping adult crickets, they're breeding already.
Before you do anything with the 1,000 crickets, pick out all the fuzzy "weevel" worms and flying beetles that came free with your crickets. They eat and breed in dead crickets, but usually if you can get rid of them early on, they don't really come back unless you buy more crickets.
I used moist peat moss for them to lay in, although fine vermiculite works good too. The key is to use something that doesn't dry out too fast. Also, keep them very well fed or they'll eat the eggs.
Keep them dry and hot. Moisture is a mess maker with crickets. Try to keep the adults at at least 80 degrees, 85-90 is even better.
Put a lid on the cups where the eggs were being laid, and rotate them out about every 3rd day.... I would leave the females a day or two without a spot to lay inbetween just so they really jump at the soil when you put it back in. It turns into alot of work, but if you leave them in too long, you have too variable of a hatch date when they're emerging from the soil. Keep the eggs at 90-95 degrees, as well as the babies when they emerge 7-10 days later. Keep them hot hot for the first 2 weeks. I go through phases with cricket breeding.... It's great to have esentially free pinheads, but if it's 1/2" or bigger that you need, you're probably better off buying them. The problem I had was that if you neglect it for more than about a day, stuff starts dying. When I did it, I would always buy 3/4" crickets (2 days before the wings show is what I ask for), and use them to produce pinheads while you're feeding them off. With the babies I use the water dispensers with a sponge that American Cricket sells.... Not sure if they're on their site, but you can ask for them. You've gotta clean them every 2 days (light diluted bleach soaking and a good rinse), so plan on buying 3 or 4 and just rotating them out.
This is pretty brief, so if you've got any specific questions or problems, let me know and I'll try to help. Here's a picture of one of my old bins... I use wood, and these boxes will hold about 4,000-5,000. In this pic there was probably 4K. They can really pack into those egg crates. When I bred them, I would put the laying soil on both ends with nothing above it. Just a block of wood so they could climb in.
