Update on GROUNDS Coffee Ground Bedding for your coop!

[analyticalblonde]

I mixed pine shavings with coffee grounds. It was fine it just didn’t look as clean and wasn’t scoopable.

I mix mine with rice hulls...both are easily scoopable and are fine enough for the poop to lay on top, dry the poop nicely, and easy to clean.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I mix mine with rice hulls...both are easily scoopable and are fine enough for the poop to lay on top, dry the poop nicely, and easy to clean.

Where do you get rice hulls?

 

[Ascholten]

This may have been said before but, if you goto one of your local coffee houses, starbucks etc they may very well give you the grouds for free. I know many of those types of places love to give that stuff away to gardeners / composters, the 'green' crowd and would probably not have any issues with giving you some either.

I sell coffee online myself, mostly green for home roasters but some roasted as well. Id offer to send some but the shipping would, well, suck. I may have to try this for myself and see how it works. You may also be able to get cull beans from a commercial roaster as well, and although you have to grind them yourself, no biggie really. Given what it is used for, grid size is not that huge a deal and you could probably use them darned near whole or just a quick crunch through a blender.

Aaron

 

[analyticalblonde]

Where do you get rice hulls?

Hi @humblehillsfarm

I order mine from...

https://graniteseed.com/product-category/planting-aids/rice-hulls/

but it can be purchased in smaller amounts from other places.

I usually get the 25 lb bag because it lasts a long, long time! It may seem expensive but in thinking about how many pine shaving bushels I had purchased over nearly two years, it's a bargain when it comes to keeping my girls' roosting tray clean, and boy, let me tell you, the ease of cleaning is great! Coupled with the coffee grounds, I will never go back to pine shavings! You just need to get a larger kitty pooper scooper like this one I ordered from Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W6NSRFS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope this helps

 

[CamJa]

I will be interested to see how it turns out.

I started doing this, just like the first report and it us fabulous! I scoop poop in the coop every morning. No smell. No messy feet. And I picked up my first bag from Starbucks yesterday. The only thing is it's very slick, so be cautious of that.

 

[CamJa]

Toward the end of February this year I picked up 3 bags of grounds coffee ground bedding from Tractor Supply and immediately fell in love. With three bags I had a roughly 4" layer in my 4x6' chicken coop. My coop smelled wonderful and the grounds were so light weight and compostable. The very best part though is the scoopability of the coffee grounds. Fast forward to today, roughly five months later, and the litter is largely poop-free as I am able to scoop it daily. It hasn't broken down into dust as wood chips do after a couple of months. It doesn't smell, isn't moldy (but I don't leave water in the coop either). The downside is this bedding as disappeared off the shelves of TSC. You can view product info at poweredbycoffee.com but sadly, they now only ship locally within 25 miles of Indianapolis. I contacted the company directly and received a response. They said they are hoping to be back in TSC by the fall, but that's not soon enough! I have been saving my own coffee and drying it to replenish what is lost, but within the last month I've finally decided I really need more. I hate the thought of switching back to pine, and I don't want to use sand at all. It is too heavy and too difficult to find dust-free sand. It also isn't compostable.

What to do? I called the Starbucks located next to my work office and they said they'll give me a huge box for free. I am picking it up today at lunch and plan on spreading the grounds on a tarp in the sun to facilitate drying. I am only nervous that they use a fine grind, but we shall see. I'll update if it works. If this is successful, this will mean a free source of bedding that is recycled, compostable, smells fantastic, scoopable, longer lasting. I really can't see any downsides!

Also, the combination of coffee and poo will set up your compost to complete in just weeks. We have literally hundreds of black fly larva and they can consume your waste in 12 hours! Just remember to water your compost in dry weather. AND the chickens love an occasional treat of black fly larva!! The circle of life!!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I started doing this, just like the first report and it us fabulous! I scoop poop in the coop every morning. No smell. No messy feet. And I picked up my first bag from Starbucks yesterday. The only thing is it's very slick, so be cautious of that.

Yesssss I love it!!!!

Also, the combination of coffee and poo will set up your compost to complete in just weeks. We have literally hundreds of black fly larva and they can consume your waste in 12 hours! Just remember to water your compost in dry weather. AND the chickens love an occasional treat of black fly larva!! The circle of life!!

I was just saying (here on BYC) that my compost *looks* ready. It’s beautiful. I just started this pile maybe 2-3 months ago. It’s probably 40% chicken poop 40% pine shavings and 20% grass clippings and food scraps. It’s dark and rich looking. But I thought with chicken poop you should let it compost for six months because of the possibility of bad bacteria.

 

[Elyrian1]

I'm going to tuck this away for when we get chickens later this year. We have very alkaline soil and this may be beneficial to incorporate in our compost process.

 

[CamJa]

Yesssss I love it!!!!



I was just saying (here on BYC) that my compost *looks* ready. It’s beautiful. I just started this pile maybe 2-3 months ago. It’s probably 40% chicken poop 40% pine shavings and 20% grass clippings and food scraps. It’s dark and rich looking. But I thought with chicken poop you should let it compost for six months because of the possibility of bad bacteria.

I discovered that the combination of coffee and poo creates a compost VERY high in Nitrogen. For grass and soil remediation, but if you want flowers and fruit, your ratio needs to be no more that 40% Nitrogen/brown/poo/coffee and the rest greens to increase the Phosphorous level. My compost gets quite warm and after the larva are gone is a beautiful, black rich soil--albeit high in Nitrogen. I like the heat to kill the unwanted bacteria. It hasn't burned my plants and I am using it in new and replants.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I discovered that the combination of coffee and poo creates a compost VERY high in Nitrogen. For grass and soil remediation, but if you want flowers and fruit, your ratio needs to be no more that 40% Nitrogen/brown/poo/coffee and the rest greens to increase the Phosphorous level. My compost gets quite warm and after the larva are gone is a beautiful, black rich soil--albeit high in Nitrogen. I like the heat to kill the unwanted bacteria. It hasn't burned my plants and I am using it in new and replants.

Yes that is a good point. Coffee and poop are considered “green” additions to the compost because of nitrogen. I have a huge garden and not a lot of compost so I can’t say I’ve fully reaped the rewards or suffered any consequences from my compost.