Coffee Ground Chicken bedding

[rosemarythyme]

@rosemarythyme what do you use.

Right now for the coop, I use wood chips and hemp under the roost. Previously I was using fine wood chips under the roost, but it was a pain trying to sift out enough of it to cover the under roost area.

Wood chips are free and sourced from my yard. Hemp is a little pricey but easier to sift poop out of and more compost friendly.

 

[AGeese]

I desperately need alternatives to sand and pine shavings which turn up my sinuses and who knows what else - according to California - in my respiratory system. Although I do need better masks.

So this sounds too good to be true, is it still holding up for everyone? And you're doing deep liter with it even though they recommend 0.5-1 in. spread?

I think about spent wet grounds getting moldy if you leave them sit out, so I would think you need to be scooping waste out religiously, but if you're doing DL does it turn in nicely too?

Also I'm wondering how much effective insecticidal bi-product remains having little or no caffeine, they certainly advertise it.

"Natural pest repellent"

I know there's studies on this, but I've not seen it personally in my own application with potted herbs.

I want to try it though, I want to believe!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I desperately need alternatives to sand and pine shavings which turn up my sinuses and who knows what else - according to California - in my respiratory system. Although I do need better masks.

So this sounds too good to be true, is it still holding up for everyone? And you're doing deep liter with it even though they recommend 0.5-1 in. spread?

I think about spent wet grounds getting moldy if you leave them sit out, so I would think you need to be scooping waste out religiously, but if you're doing DL does it turn in nicely too?

Also I'm wondering how much effective insecticidal bi-product remains having little or no caffeine, they certainly advertise it.

"Natural pest repellent"

I know there's studies on this, but I've not seen it personally in my own application with potted herbs.

I want to try it though, I want to believe!

The coffee grounds have had the least amount of dust out of all materials but it will eventually get dusty because chickens themselves are dusty.

Rural King is now selling Grounds coffee full time. It is a little pricy, but long lasting. It is excellent for smaller square footage coops, like 50 sq feet or less, but would work well for all sizes except you need more and more coffee so the price adds up!

My coop is now 125sq feet, so I started using pine shavings again. However the next time I clean the coop I plan to switch back to coffee grounds since we now have a rural king close to us.

I believe they state a natural insect repellent simply because lost insects want to eat wood and fibrous products, not coffee grounds. Pine shavings and straw offer great hiding places for small things like mites too, and coffee grounds dont.

The grounds don’t mold from waste material as long as it’s scoop somewhat regularly but missed droppings won’t harm anything. It just sucks if you spill water because that cold cause mold. I just don’t leave water in the coop usually.

As for deep litter, coffee grounds are suitable for scooping, not deep litter. I do recommend deeper than 1” though. I’d aim for 2-4” at least for a softer landing for the girls and help prevent them from scratching it down to the bare floor.

I had kept the same grounds down for close to a year before moving to a new coop and just replenished them as needed.

 

[AGeese]

The coffee grounds have had the least amount of dust out of all materials but it will eventually get dusty because chickens themselves are dusty.

Rural King is now selling Grounds coffee full time. It is a little pricy, but long lasting. It is excellent for smaller square footage coops, like 50 sq feet or less, but would work well for all sizes except you need more and more coffee so the price adds up!

My coop is now 125sq feet, so I started using pine shavings again. However the next time I clean the coop I plan to switch back to coffee grounds since we now have a rural king close to us.

I believe they state a natural insect repellent simply because lost insects want to eat wood and fibrous products, not coffee grounds. Pine shavings and straw offer great hiding places for small things like mites too, and coffee grounds dont.

The grounds don’t mold from waste material as long as it’s scoop somewhat regularly but missed droppings won’t harm anything. It just sucks if you spill water because that cold cause mold. I just don’t leave water in the coop usually.

As for deep litter, coffee grounds are suitable for scooping, not deep litter. I do recommend deeper than 1” though. I’d aim for 2-4” at least for a softer landing for the girls and help prevent them from scratching it down to the bare floor.

I had kept the same grounds down for close to a year before moving to a new coop and just replenished them as needed.

Perfect! That's what I was hoping to hear. I had a hunch on the water spills. I think based on your reply I'm going to get rid of the wood flake I'm currently using and lay down a good 3 to 4 inch layer of sand, then cover that with 2 to 3 inches of this type of coffee grounds or at least what I can afford at the time.

I did this originally with sand first then covered that with pine shavings, which did help to keep the silica down, but then I was giving them another tub of sand to take baths in and back to square one (as this was all in doors). There would be plumes of dust when I'd go into the garage, it was pretty bad and only from a half dozen birds haha...

Now I'm just using mini flake from Theisen's, which is nice an soft, but really dusty. I hate to see feathers not breaking down in it like with sand, so I end up scooping more out not wanting to sift it much.

I hate to see them bathing in wood flake and getting no benefit or picking up any crap from it. So on that order (as well) grounds might be a really good thing for them to stir into or lay in!

 

[Sara S]

My baby chicks were on it at RUral King, and idk hiw it works but they smelled yucky but their feet were clean, not like with shavings and the poop getting stuck everywhere

 

[chfriedmam]

The coffee grounds have had the least amount of dust out of all materials but it will eventually get dusty because chickens themselves are dusty

I ordered some of the Grounds product from Tractor Supply and am waiting. I'm in Los Angeles and I don't think Rural King will ship to me. We are rebuilding our coop and it will be 80ft2, so price will be an issue, not to mention availability. I reached out to the company to ask some questions-no response.

Didn't you say on your blog or something you are using grounds from local coffee shops/your kitchen without further processing? How is that going? The article I think you cited did say chickens that had coffee in their diet had thinner eggshells, but it didn't say anything about bedding. I have done a quick internet search and once-brewed coffee still has quite a bit of caffeine, but how much do they consume, directly or indirectly? I've tried reboiling and cold rinsing my old grounds and, well, it was a mess. We drink a lot of espresso here too, and there will be no second rinse of that product!!!!

The test would really be what happens in real life. As I think you noted, the volatiles oils in pine are pretty toxic/caustic to human respiratory systems and people use them right and left. Just like everyone says "don't use cedar" while not even thinking about how toxic pine is, I have to wonder about coffee grounds.

 

[Tervuren]

I had issues with mold, despite cleaning it out several times a week. Other people haven’t seemed to have that problem, so probably worth trying! It smells nice until it goes moldy though! lol And it is free from Starbucks. If they don’t have it out front and they aren’t busy, I had luck just politely asking them for it.

 

[AGeese]

I had issues with mold, despite cleaning it out several times a week. Other people haven’t seemed to have that problem, so probably worth trying! It smells nice until it goes moldy though! lol And it is free from Starbucks. If they don’t have it out front and they aren’t busy, I had luck just politely asking them for it.

Hopefully they aren't giving you espresso as chfriedmam warned. I can see the mold so I am planning to spot sift and slow rake, and see how it goes. Also more sun and ventilation should be helpful where I'm moving them next.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I ordered some of the Grounds product from Tractor Supply and am waiting. I'm in Los Angeles and I don't think Rural King will ship to me. We are rebuilding our coop and it will be 80ft2, so price will be an issue, not to mention availability. I reached out to the company to ask some questions-no response.

Didn't you say on your blog or something you are using grounds from local coffee shops/your kitchen without further processing? How is that going? The article I think you cited did say chickens that had coffee in their diet had thinner eggshells, but it didn't say anything about bedding. I have done a quick internet search and once-brewed coffee still has quite a bit of caffeine, but how much do they consume, directly or indirectly? I've tried reboiling and cold rinsing my old grounds and, well, it was a mess. We drink a lot of espresso here too, and there will be no second rinse of that product!!!!

The test would really be what happens in real life. As I think you noted, the volatiles oils in pine are pretty toxic/caustic to human respiratory systems and people use them right and left. Just like everyone says "don't use cedar" while not even thinking about how toxic pine is, I have to wonder about coffee grounds.

In my experience they aren’t interested and eating it. I worked next to a Starbucks but quit my job Over a year ago and don’t drive near a single shop now. The old job was over an hour from home so naturally I don’t have a reason to head that way anymore.

So I still save our household coffee grounds. I use a pour over and while the grounds are still hit I dump them onto a saucer and let them air dry for 2-3 days. So I usually have 2-4 saucers of grounds hanging out on top of my toaster oven. As they dry I dump them into a container. I have to stir them once a day to help them dry. I stir when dumping that mornings grounds.

When I collected them from Starbucks I’d usually get quite a large box, roughly 2’x3’ and 1’ tall every day. I had large sheets of black plastic and in the morning before leaving for work I’d spread the precious days grounds onto the plastic outside in the sun to dry. I’d come home and stir them and pull them into the greenhouse at night to avoid condensation. Usually took 1-2 days to dry depending on the sunlight. If I got lazy and didn’t stir and rotate it would mold but I’d just toss that batch straight into the garden. Coffee doesn’t need to be composted! I only picked up coffee 1-2x a week because that was all I ever needed. I put a lot into my garden because I didn’t have a place to store it.

Now I have a significantly larger coop and a no longer the means to collect grounds but Grounds brand recently became available at Rural King so I may start purchasing it again. I bought 5 bags from tractor supply spring 2021 but used two on the poop boards for scooping. Tractor supply only carries it during chick days.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Hopefully they aren't giving you espresso as chfriedmam warned. I can see the mold so I am planning to spot sift and slow rake, and see how it goes. Also more sun and ventilation should be helpful where I'm moving them next.

I just gently pounded the espresso pucks to break them out and then mold wasn’t much of an issue as long as I could dry the grounds in the sun. It was easiest to put the grounds on a sheet of Plastic, cover with plastic, and use some flat large object to pound the espresso pucks. Moldy bits could be tossed straight into the garden though as a great nitrogen source.