Compost and bedding questions!

[Terri In Calif]

i do vermicomposting. it works great. you don’t have to turn it. check out uncle jim’s worm farm.

basically you add shredded or torn cardboard or newsprint, and your fruit and veggie scraps, plant clippings, etc. and put them in stackable trays with worms in them. and the worms eat everything, and their poop is the vermicompost. it has turned my zero yield fruit trees into bumper crops!

Wow! Your garden looks so healthy. Fantastic!

 

[Terri In Calif]

hi humble,

have a quick question, actually a few. first time owner of chickens, and we bought some bags of recycled coffee grounds at our feed store to use for our soon to be chicken’s bedding. are you using solid recycled coffee grounds inside you coop , or are you mixing with hay or anything else? In addition, do you find the grounds stain? I’d assume they do, but just wondering what you have experienced. My husband Made a coop, and he lined the edges with a light cement pavers. Here’s a pic. Anyhow, he likes the clean look, and he thinks The coffee grounds will stain the cement pavers....lol. appreciate your input.

currently, in this pic, dirt is on the pavers, but the dirt doesn’t stain the cement. We’re planning on adding more pavers and possibly some fake grass. It’s a heavy duty grass, but that’s another concern we need to look into. They will free range.

 

[Terri In Calif]

Wow! Your garden looks so healthy. Fantastic!

Joyce,
How are mixing you soil? Or, do you just add as a topping to your current dirt? Thank you!

 

[aart]

Anyhow, he likes the clean look, and he thinks The coffee grounds will stain the cement pavers....lol.

They might indeed, or the chicken poop will.
The least of your problems with that beautiful but way too tiny coop.
Ramp is way too steep to be of any use.

 

[NatJ]

The least of your problems with that beautiful but way too tiny coop.
Ramp is way too steep to be of any use.

I agree about the steep ramp.

As for whether it's way too tiny: I'm guessing on dimensions, but it's probably fine for 2-3 bantams. It does look a bit small, and short, for standard sized chickens. (I'm thinking the bottom section is about 4 feet square and 18" high.)

I assume the chickens would sleep and lay eggs in the upper part, and spend their waking hours in the lower part (which would thus be a "coop" with wire sides and a covered top--usable all year in some climates.)

 

[humblehillsfarm]

hi humble,

have a quick question, actually a few. first time owner of chickens, and we bought some bags of recycled coffee grounds at our feed store to use for our soon to be chicken’s bedding. are you using solid recycled coffee grounds inside you coop , or are you mixing with hay or anything else? In addition, do you find the grounds stain? I’d assume they do, but just wondering what you have experienced. My husband Made a coop, and he lined the edges with a light cement pavers. Here’s a pic. Anyhow, he likes the clean look, and he thinks The coffee grounds will stain the cement pavers....lol. appreciate your input.

I've never had the coffee stain my clothing or the plastic mats we have underneath the doorway to the coop. I don't mix it with anything, but I do put wood chips in the brood boxes which get mixed in a bit with the coffee, but not badly. To be fair, dried on chicken poop will be way worse than mild leeching from the coffee. The coffee is spent, but any time it has wound up in the chicken's water, it's minimally leeched into the water. And on the note of water, spent coffee has little, if any remaining caffiene and coffee grounds are safe for chickens if they eat them.

 

[rosemarythyme]

x3 on chicken poop being worse than any potential coffee stains. The rule around chickens is no matter what you paint something, the end result color will be "chicken greyish-brown" from the poop and dander.

 

[Terri In Calif]

They might indeed, or the chicken poop will.
The least of your problems with that beautiful but way too tiny coop.
Ramp is way too steep to be of any use.

The ramp was redone, and we will only have 2 chickens. They will free range with a special tractor for our property to protect them. So, yes it’s small, we didn’t want a flock.