Can chickens eat coffee grounds?

[dixiechicken84]

so you just dump leaves from the yard and coffee grounds in their pen and let them "mulch" it up for you and then what?? im new to chickens, but I have a lot of leaves and quite a bit of coffee grounds so knowing something good to do with them would be helpful!! thanks for any info you might have.

 

[shortgrass]

so you just dump leaves from the yard and coffee grounds in their pen and let them "mulch" it up for you and then what?? im new to chickens, but I have a lot of leaves and quite a bit of coffee grounds so knowing something good to do with them would be helpful!! thanks for any info you might have.

Yep Mine are mostly free range, but they spend alot of time turning the compost for me; they will pick through just about anything, leaves, branches, yard scraps, even the feathers from processing and bones from dinner

Hold off on anything rotten or things you wouldn't be willing to feed to the family dog, etc... then after a bit, you can scoop everything out of the run and use or as compost or mulch in the garden; adding the chicken poo and it's great stuff


Edit to add, GREAT boredom reliever too, giving them scraps. Mine have a blast with an old mushy pumpkin or scraps from the kitchen; their favorite so far for eating is radish tops, and playing tag with Ham bones and oranges lol, its more than just kicking stuff around; they actually learn skills playing keep away and it keeps them from getting bored and picking n each other

 

[Sutremaine]

I would not suggest it. The caffeine is not good for them.

How much caffeine would be left in the grounds?

 

[RonP]

Little to no caffeine remains in spent grounds.

 

[odysseychicken]

Just ran across this thread while searching to see if coffee was bad for chickens. I had about two whole roasted coffee beans roughly crushed on the counter. I took them out to my three birds. They gobbled them up out of my hand before I could ask if they wanted cream or sugar. Maybe a little caffeine will help them out run the coyotes.

 

[Grendal1963]

One of my hens ate coffee grins out of compost pile will this harm her ?

 

[barector]

I give mine coffee grounds all of the time with no problems. I have 16 chickens and they typically get about 3 tablespoons of grounds almost every day. I make up a bowl of all of my vegetable waste each day and give this to them. I put in any fruits and vegetable scraps that I have including things that some folks on here say are bad. I think many people overthink what they can give the chickens. In addition to watermelon rinds, broccoli, greens and the like, I also give them coffee grounds, avocado skins, tomatoes, orange peels, potato peels, leftover rice and beans, apple cores, onions etc. If it's a fruit or vegetable scrap, I give it to them and they eat it up and have never had any problems whatsoever. I recently had boiled shrimp and gave them all of the shells. Yep, they loved them.
Why do I say some overthink what they give them? Apple seeds are a good example. Cyanide in apple seeds...yes but it is only trace amounts. Your chickens could not eat enough apple seeds to actually hurt them

 

[ladyearth]

I read avocado skins are bad... and potato peelings.. RAW potato peelings that is....
If mine get potatoes... baked etc a liitle of them even they will snatch it out of each others mouth.
I need to buy extra and give them more esp when I buy 1/2 bushel from the Amish.. cooked or baked of course
just a saying

 

[JudithM]

I recently heard about somebody using coffee chaff (from a roasting facility) for use as bedding and soil amendment. They have coffee grounds available too.

So, can chickens eat coffee grounds?

They can eat (apparently tannin-laced) acorns, so why not? Anybody try this?

EDIT: And would they eat the grounds? Would they get hooked on morning coffee if they did???

 

[JudithM]

I plant to sprinkle coffee grounds in my open air chicken pen because they discourage ants. The grounds will not kill the ants but they certainly don't like them an tend to relocate if you sprinkle coffee grounds around. I don't know if the chickens will pay them any attention or not just mixed with the sand in my pen.