Update on GROUNDS Coffee Ground Bedding for your coop!

[humblehillsfarm]

I use coffee grounds in my garden. I always wondered if I could use them in the coop. It just makes sense. A few things that kind of stopped me was will chickens eat it? Is it bad for them to eat it? This is interesting.

Please see previous comments regarding them being edible. In short, they are likely no more harmful than straw or pine shavings. My chickens don’t eat them.

 

[dirkandlorie]

Can't wait to hear more on your experiment with coffee grounds in your coop! Keep us posted.

 

[gooberhouse]

Bit of an aside, but what kind of scoop do you all use? Does a cat litter scoop work, as if the coffee grounds are cat litter?

 

[ringaring]

Toward the end of February this year I picked up 3 bags of grounds coffee ground bedding from Tractor Supply and immediately fell in love. With three bags I had a roughly 4" layer in my 4x6' chicken coop. My coop smelled wonderful and the grounds were so light weight and compostable. The very best part though is the scoopability of the coffee grounds. Fast forward to today, roughly five months later, and the litter is largely poop-free as I am able to scoop it daily. It hasn't broken down into dust as wood chips do after a couple of months. It doesn't smell, isn't moldy (but I don't leave water in the coop either). The downside is this bedding as disappeared off the shelves of TSC. You can view product info at poweredbycoffee.com but sadly, they now only ship locally within 25 miles of Indianapolis. I contacted the company directly and received a response. They said they are hoping to be back in TSC by the fall, but that's not soon enough! I have been saving my own coffee and drying it to replenish what is lost, but within the last month I've finally decided I really need more. I hate the thought of switching back to pine, and I don't want to use sand at all. It is too heavy and too difficult to find dust-free sand. It also isn't compostable.

What to do? I called the Starbucks located next to my work office and they said they'll give me a huge box for free. I am picking it up today at lunch and plan on spreading the grounds on a tarp in the sun to facilitate drying. I am only nervous that they use a fine grind, but we shall see. I'll update if it works. If this is successful, this will mean a free source of bedding that is recycled, compostable, smells fantastic, scoopable, longer lasting. I really can't see any downsides!

Is there any concern about the birds eating coffee grounds? I know for dogs coffeee or any caffeine can be lethal because of their already high metabolic rate. And how do you keep mold from developing? TIA

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Bit of an aside, but what kind of scoop do you all use? Does a cat litter scoop work, as if the coffee grounds are cat litter?

I use a cat litter scoop! It works great. I wish I had a much bigger one though.

Can't wait to hear more on your experiment with coffee grounds in your coop! Keep us posted.

It seems to take about two days to fully dry them. Starbucks employees were pumped to save them so I have organized for them to save them on the days I work (they are located right next to my office). So far so good!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Is there any concern about the birds eating coffee grounds? I know for dogs coffeee or any caffeine can be lethal because of their already high metabolic rate. And how do you keep mold from developing? TIA

I addressed all Q&As collectively from this thread here: https://humble-hills-farm.com/2020/07/24/using-coffee-grounds-as-chicken-coop-bedding/

In summary, the used grounds are considered decaffeinated. There has been no direct research to suggest caffeine is toxic or not toxic to poultry as they are to mammals. However I found a 2011 commercial poultry research article which fed coffee equaling up to 9 mg of caffeine daily (2-3x as much as used coffee will have) to commercial hens for 4-5 months and found no significant ill-effects on the hens.

In my own personal experience, my 18 chickens don't eat the grounds. I've raised babies in there as well. I have also dropped feed on the floor and watched them pick through the grounds for the feed, avoiding the grounds. I've been using it for five and a half months with no ill-effects. In short, they are likely no more harmful than straw or pine shavings.

 

[OlympicChick]

Glad that you followed up with this regarding the grounds. The Starbucks stores here have baskets they leave the grounds in for anybody to use for their gardens. I'm guessing the east coast is different. Maybe suggest to them that they can do this? It may be a new concept for them. As far as drying them goes, I haven't done this, but if you have a paper shredder, maybe mix the wet grounds with the paper shreds? The paper would absorb some of the moisture and perhaps make the grounds dry faster? It could help in the wintertime.

 

[OlympicChick]

I picked up 3 bags yesterday, this is what they look like:

Maybe you can show them the pictures so they know that the stickers exist?

 

[OlympicChick]

If you have a Starbucks inside a grocery store, ask them too. This haul was from a Safeway Starbucks.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I picked up 3 bags yesterday, this is what they look like:

View attachment 2266468

View attachment 2266471
Maybe you can show them the pictures so they know that the stickers exist?

Wow that’s very neat! The woman I spoke with indicated they’ve saved them before for people but it didn’t seem like they did it often. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it was more common for the west coast stores to do this type of thing. My hope is to save and dry enough to tide me over for the winter and just rely on summer sun. I can occasionally get shredded paper for my place of work but I prefer to use it for compost because I never seem to have enough browns!