Coffee grounds and chickens

[bel]

thanks

I will continue with the grounds, I was a little worried because it does kill slugs but it also brings up earthworms so I'm sure the girls will be all over when I get them.

Coffee and cabbage? they must have been wired and had turbo boost action.

 

[squeakyballs]

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I add it to my compost, too. I was going to buy some earthworms to add to my garden... what do you mean it brings them up? Will it be okay after it is composted?

Just think... you could have coffee infused eggs! It'd save a step in the morning

 

[bel]

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I add it to my compost, too. I was going to buy some earthworms to add to my garden... what do you mean it brings them up? Will it be okay after it is composted?

Just think... you could have coffee infused eggs! It'd save a step in the morning

Coffee grounds brings earthworms up into the compost pile, they love coffee. Usually the worms hang around the bottom edges where its not hot, and move up once its finished and cooled down enough. It would make them easier for the chickens toscratch up because they are closer to the surface in areas with coffee grounds.

 

[omelay]

we pile our excessive quantities of coffee grounds separate from our other table scraps which get fed to the pigs. the hens scavenge through it once the pigs are done. the hens have access to the coffee grounds full time. once in a while a hen will scratch at the pile of coffee ground. i haven't noticed any later night than usual. although, the rooster has been a little on edge lately. huh?

omelays.blogspot.com

 

[eastbaychicks]

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You all have to check this guys blog out... I'm a lurker and lover! I even got free tomato seeds in their Christmas card!!! Thanks a million!


I was worried about this as well.... you know I thought it was causing them to randomly run from point to point in the yard. Crazy birds, I don't think they need coffee for that.

 

[gsim]

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[gsim]

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Cooked cabbage does that around here. We sound like we are trying to start two chainsaws that are out of gas after we have cooked cabbage.

We could try to blame the dog, but she goes to the basement!

 

[ole-crone]

We brought home home bags of kitchen scraps from a local coffee shop one winter. The chickens hated the coffee grounds and the stuff just piled up higher and higher. They also avoided the scraps that had grounds stuck to them. This was good, fair trade coffee too - not just any ol' thing. We never offered to compost their kitchen scraps again.

 

[son4momtime]

~~David Ruggiero is working on a new project called “Upcycling Northwest.” Upcycling, of course, is the in-word for smarter/better recycling, making use of the energy in the initial production of something, rather than using more energy to break it down into raw materials–or, as David puts it, finding “the highest and best re-use for the material rather than the easiest or most obvious.” David is sure that there is more to upcycling than making arty handbags out of gum wrappers. With Upcycling Northwest, he’s trying to hook folks up with useful industrial castoffs. And in Seattle, what better place to start than with the coffee industry? A few weeks ago, David sent an email around to his many intrepid gardener friends, inviting us to try out coffee bean chaff–the light, airy husks blown off the beans during roasting–as mulch and compost. I said “sure,” and it wasn’t long before David darkened my doorstep with a big bag of the fluffy stuff. Coffee Chaff Litter I admit I wasn’t feeling super-hopeful about the mulch idea–the chaff is so soft and light, and the winter garden is so wet and mucky–I thought I might wait until spring. But David mentioned he’d been using it in place of wood chips in the chicken coop, and that captured my imagination. Next time I cleaned out the coop, I replaced the white wood shavings with a few inches of coffee chaff. Coffee Chaff Chicken The chickens were hilarious. Like cats, they can be unnerved by novelty, and I wasn’t sure what they would think of their new chaffy home. But they all immediately ran into the coop, and started “playing” in the chaff, tossing it up with their bills. SO funny. There are pros and cons to coffee chaff in the chicken coop, but on balance, I’ve decided to keep using it. Here’s my report: Cons: So light that it flies around, gets in the chicken water. Turns slimy when wet. Pros: Free! Upcycled! No link to the timber industry. Smells like coffee. Light–easy to handle. Clumps with chicken poop a bit like scoopable kitty litter–easy to remove from coop. Swiftly composts. Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...-chaff-chicken-coop-litter.aspx#ixzz2nn8eLvZs

 

[Steve777]

Given that coffee is a bean, it should be fairly high in protein to start. The brewing process does not really extract that much protein, so it should be left in the grounds. As a fertilizer coffee grounds are roughly the same NPK as manure, and I'd expect that N to be coming from their protein content.