Do you use coffee grounds as bedding? I'd love to hear your experience with it!

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I'm so tired of the dust in my coop, and have been thinking about phasing out the PDZ I use on the poop boards for coffee grounds. We're huge coffee drinkers in my house and I believe we can supply enough of our own to cover the board. (I'm planning to just start adding the grounds to the pdz that is currently there- hence the "phasing out" process). Currently I have a few inches of PDZ and scoop with a kitty litter scoop every day or every other day. I'd like to do the same thing, but with a mixture of coffee/PDZ and eventually 100% coffee.

I've read a lot of blogs about people who strongly promote the use of coffee grounds (particularly certain brands that they're probably getting a small kickbacks from). I've also read a lot of posts on here from people who are thinking about trying coffee grounds. It seems a lot of the replies are people sharing their opinions about coffee grounds. I'm hoping to hear from people who have used or do use coffee grounds in their coop.

Since it will only be on my poop board, I'm not worried about caffeine. I think they'll peck through it at first and once their curiostiy is satisified, they'll barely touch it - same as the PDZ. The things I'm most curious about are:

• will the coffe grounds help to dry out the poo like the PDZ does?
• how strong is the coffee smell, and does it smell like pleasant coffee or gross coffee mixed with poop that will make me hate the smell of the actual coffee I'm drinking?
• will the grounds continue to break down and be equally as dusty as the PDZ, or will it reduce the dust?

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[DobieLover]

I switched to coffee grounds last spring and preferred it to PDZ because it was nearly dustless, much lighter and far less expensive.

Then had to transition back because coffee grounds bedding is seasonal in my area. I intend to purchase a year supply when it shows up on the shelves again this spring.
The transition had to be done very slowly as the birds wouldn't roost with the striking contrast in poop board litter. I had to put a scoop on each board and mix it in for them to walk on it. Every time I needed to add litter, it was grounds and after a couple of months it fully replaced the PDZ and the birds were fine with it.
Some people have a concern about the birds eating the grounds and having an issue with the residual caffeine in them but I never saw any of my then 25 birds eat it.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Interested to hear people's thoughts...as the OP mentioned, it's a topic where there are lots of opinions but not a lot of first hand experience out there. I'd be interested to hear if people purchase coffee bedding or reuse their own coffee grinds, get them from coffee shops, etc.

When I have it, I add biochar to my bedding. It helps absorb moisture and excess ammonia.

 

[AntiqueB]

Interested to hear people's thoughts...as the OP mentioned, it's a topic where there are lots of opinions but not a lot of first hand experience out there. I'd be interested to hear if people purchase coffee bedding or reuse their own coffee grinds, get them from coffee shops, etc.

When I have it, I add biochar to my bedding. It helps absorb moisture and excess ammonia.

What is biochar?

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What is biochar?

In simplest terms, it's charcoal. It's been used for centuries to absorb odors, toxins, etc. If a chicken happened to nibble at it a bit, it's actually arguably good for them.

You could just by lump charcoal and break it up, or it can be made in small batches in a wood stove or outdoor fire pit.

The time in the chicken coop would "charge" the biochar, making it a nice soil amendment for your garden or compost upon cleanout of the coop.

There are a lot of positives using it. A couple negatives - if you do grind it fine, there could be some dust (I've not used coffee, so can't compare the two), and if you use a decent amount, you can get the occasional black chicken footprint on your eggs.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

In simplest terms, it's charcoal. It's been used for centuries to absorb odors, toxins, etc. If a chicken happened to nibble at it a bit, it's actually arguably good for them.

You could just by lump charcoal and break it up, or it can be made in small batches in a wood stove or outdoor fire pit.

The time in the chicken coop would "charge" the biochar, making it a nice soil amendment for your garden or compost upon cleanout of the coop.

There are a lot of positives using it. A couple negatives - if you do grind it fine, there could be some dust (I've not used coffee, so can't compare the two), and if you use a decent amount, you can get the occasional black chicken footprint on your eggs.

What is the difference between biochar and regular wood ash. I assume it’s ground down to finer particles, but is there any other difference? I’ve heard good things about both.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I switched to coffee grounds last spring and preferred it to PDZ because it was nearly dustless, much lighter and far less expensive.
View attachment 3382551
Then had to transition back because coffee grounds bedding is seasonal in my area. I intend to purchase a year supply when it shows up on the shelves again this spring.
The transition had to be done very slowly as the birds wouldn't roost with the striking contrast in poop board litter. I had to put a scoop on each board and mix it in for them to walk on it. Every time I needed to add litter, it was grounds and after a couple of months it fully replaced the PDZ and the birds were fine with it.
Some people have a concern about the birds eating the grounds and having an issue with the residual caffeine in them but I never saw any of my then 25 birds eat it.

Thanks. I think that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What is the difference between biochar and regular wood ash. I assume it’s ground down to finer particles, but is there any other difference? I’ve heard good things about both.

Wood ash is the remnants of a fire after it's been burned down. It's typically white or light gray in color. It's great in the garden, and if the fire was with clean wood, good for chicken dust baths.

Biochar is charcoal, so that's the light, dark black bits of not fully burned material. Charcoal/Biochar is made by heating organic material (usually wood) to high temperatures without any oxygen.

You can buy lump charcoal by the bag (it's chunks, not the glued together briquettes), pick it out of your backyard fire pit, or make it. I've made it in small batches in metal paint cans and hotel pans in the fire pit.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

A fresh batch of biochar I made a couple weeks ago.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

View attachment 3382713

A fresh batch of biochar I made a couple weeks ago.

Thank you. So it's basically the leftover "chunks" in the fire pit, it seems like (although yours is much prettier than mine, haha!). Do you grind it up into smaller pieces?