tea leaves & coffee grounds

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ghgirls

ghgirls

In the Brooder
10 Years
Mar 26, 2009
11
0
22
I've read everything I can find about what to and what not to feed my hens, but can't find anything about tea leaves and coffee grounds... is that safe? Would the caffeine be harmful or anything?!
I'm English so have lots of tea leaves left over every day! So should I save them for our worms or can the hens have some too?
 
Never thought of that before, I would be interested to know too coz I am scottish and drinks loads of tea
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I normally chuck my tea and coffee grinds in the compost bin!
 
Thankyou both for the welcome!
Off for a cuppa now, so I hope somebody comes up with an answer soon!
Cheers!
 
I don't think there's any nutritional value to either one, even if you could convince your chicks to eat them. Better off composted, where they add acid to your soil.
 
Caffeine is definitely not good for them. I don't know how much caffeine is left, after brewing, though. I don't know if they'd even want to eat them, either. I always put ours in the worm bin.
 
I personally do think there's plenty of nutritional value to them (vitamins, antioxidants, even after brewing), but I wouldn't feed them anyway because any leftover caffeine is a powerful stimulant that might be a little too much for their little hearts. I compost mine (I'm American but my mom's family is Irish, so lots of tea here), and it's fabulous for the soil. Also, I put a lot of them in the vermicomposter in the kitchen. The worms particularly love them.
 
Hi there! WELCOME TO BYC
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It's a great place for information & laughs. I use my coffee grounds round the base of my clematis & climbing roses to deter the slugs & snails; they hate it. The chickens ignore it. The tea leaves I either put in the compost bin or if I'm using teabags I pile them up around shrubs to act as a mulch & to hold moisture in hot weather ---magnolias especially thrive with a deep mulch of damp teabags ( I put a covering of grass cuttings over them so it doesn't look too sordid). My chickens eat the grass cuttings but again leave the tea bags. Hope that helps.
 
I dump used tea around my plants. My DD did a science experiment once and the plants grew better with tea than they did with plain water, or Miracle Grow! So I give them old tea and also the leaves/waste.

So don't waste the waste tea on chickens...

and
welcome-byc.gif
 

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