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

[Bronni]

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 kind of biochar do you use and where do you get it? I have just started reading about it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have a coffee shop not far, picked up four bags of spent grounds.
Will stop tomorrow they use a garbage can at the back door for them.
I have picked up a bit of napkins and sugar envelopes but like it so far.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What kind of biochar do you use and where do you get it? I have just started reading about it.

Here's a thread I started a few days ago with some biochar experiments I've been doing. To date I've played with mostly wood as an input, but as you'll read I've branched out.

 

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

If you use your own grounds how do you go about drying them out? Just outside on some sort of rack?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Picked up 3 more large bags same shop coop is now covered.
We are moving my small coop in by the big one all in the same yard.
I will do it in grounds also.

 

[Sally PB]

I stop at Starbucks and pick up grounds for my garden. They're fairly dry already, especially the espresso grounds. The ones that were brewed with paper filters are a lot wetter.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

If you use your own grounds how do you go about drying them out? Just outside on some sort of rack?

I have been drying mine on the counter in open small flat containers. Stir/shake them daily. Then when after a few days I toss them in a large bin- still open. Don’t seal it and don’t store in a tall, narrow bin, or moisture will reaccumulate and get yucky. Don’t ask me how, but if you put dry grounds in an airtight container, they become moist- even if you add paper towels or absorbent gel packs.

 

[pennyJo1960]

The ones we have picked up at the one we stop at they are dry.
Some chunks bits of paper if I do not find them all. The chickens dig them out for us.

 

[Bigbluefrog]

I get spent coffee grounds free from the many coffee shops,
Mix it with wood ash from our stove. This is all new way for me.

So you use old coffee grounds? That is brilliant. I am new to coffee as an option for the poop trays. We are building our new coop right now. So excited

 

[B2274]

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!

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I am also looking for a less dust option. I just spent a lot of time and money switching to coffee and I am not a fan. I drove 3 hrs three different trips to get enough to switch from sand to coffee and it's been 2 months or less and there is now black dust on everything, my chickens look gross-no longer have any white brahmas, they are all coffee stained etc. It smells fine, but I don't like it and was looking at "natural" cat litter now, but honestly don't know. I have tried Sand, sand and coffee, wood chips, just coffee and am at my wits end with the dust. Good luck! LMK if you find anything else promising.