Get over to your local coffee roaster and relieve them of their chaff!

[welsummer4]

I just got 4 giant bags of free coffee bean chaff from one of the local roasters in my city. It's super soft, dry, and absorbent, so it makes great bedding. I won't have to buy pine shavings for the rest of the winter!

Here's a link to a piece from Mother Earth News about using chaff in the coop: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Happy-Homesteader/Coffee-Chaff-Chicken-Coop-Litter.aspx

 

[Hippie Chickie]

It also gets really slimy when wet. I have 10 bags that I got for free. They are sitting in my shed aiting for dry weather. I still need to use shavings in the winter. Also don't put it in the nesting boxes. It stick to the egg and also discolores them

 

[welsummer4]

Quote:
Bummer! I've been using it for a while without the problems you mention. Luckily my coop stays pretty dry, but I can see where the chaff could become slimy if it got wet.

 

[Hippie Chickie]

I also live in the pacific north wet. My ducks really like the pond that was where we were keeping the goats. Thank the gods we moved them to higher ground!

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:

That's a good one.

 

[HeritageHens]

I mix chaff 50/50 with shavings. It works great! I'll do anything as an excuse to go to my favorite coffee roaster and get a great cup of coffee - I mean bag of chaff!

Oh, and while you are there, ask your roaster if they have any extra burlap bags from the beans. I've gotten hundreds for free but now they are charging a whopping 10 cents each - STILL a bargain. I use them all around here; covering the ventilation holes in the chicken coop on cold nights, covering the ladder to their coop which is just a bit too slippery, storing fall leaves to make leaf mold, carrying leaves of hay or straw back to the chickens (it's shorter to go through the house and this results in no trailing mess), protecting root balls of shrubs/trees that I'm transplanting, haul bunny poop from a shelter to my house (they have no idea of the gold they are giving me!), etc. A friend makes them into purses that she sells at the flea market so she gets the unique bags.