Update on GROUNDS Coffee Ground Bedding for your coop!

[Landgirl63]

I'm interested in the Starbucks thing too, as I've been following your February post for a little over a month.
After reading your post, I started getting my co-workers to save our coffee grounds and filters for me. Just throwing them in the coop and run with pine shavings, grass clippings, leaves, and shredded paper to build matter. Then when the chicks are done, I find the dried paper filters and rip them up by hand before adding new materials. So not the same as what you're doing but it does add a nice smell for a day or two.

As a newbie to all this, would the coffee work for ducks too?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

As a newbie to all this, would the coffee work for ducks too?

I think ducks are too messy and wet. If the grounds are too wet for too long and in large quantities, they can mold. I had that happen once when I spilled a lot of water and didn’t clean it up.

 

[Ascholten]

Id say no for ducks, grounds hold water pretty well, and ducks and water kind of go together. Caffeinated Quackers, yah that'd be a sight to see.

Aaron

 

[Landgirl63]

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!

Does the coffee grounds idea work for duck bedding? We’re in the process of building a large duck house (could be converted to chicken coop if the ducks don’t work out for us) for 9 new ducks, arriving soon. Never had ducks so lots to learn!

 

[Landgirl63]

I think ducks are too messy and wet. If the grounds are too wet for too long and in large quantities, they can mold. I had that happen once when I spilled a lot of water and didn’t clean it up.

Thanks, but my next question is around ‘wet ducks’. I read that if the ducks roam free during the day, with access to water, they don’t need water in their house at night. Does that make them ‘less messy’??

 

[Ascholten]

I'll leave the official answer to duck owners but would imagine that if there is not any water in their coop, then they can't splash it all over the place and make a mess with it, so less messy on that aspect, but they can come in soaking wet, slopping around, pooping on everything etc, so just as messy on that aspect.

Aaron

 

[chfriedmam]

Quick question: I finally just got 2 bags of the Grounds bedding from TSC. I ordered them b4 they were back in stock in all their stores for chick days, and they shipped separately from 2 far away stores. I'm wondering if they're old/spoiled/got wet, because they don't have a nice coffee smell, they have a SOUR old coffee grounds smell. I haven't opened a bag yet, but if there's something wrong with it I'm afraid to use it.

 

[Ascholten]

Id imagine you are getting recycled grounds. In other words, possibly used previously to make coffee somewhere. Because of that, NO they are NOT going to have that wonderful coffee smell, because that all got sucked out and put into the cup of coffee they were previously used to make. If they were still capable of making a nice cup of coffee, trust me, they'd be doing just that, because it generates a LOT more money than selling you perfectly good beans for compost.

Compost, ... YES, that is what they essentially are. They are going to smell, dirt-y, compost-y. As long as they are not moist and moldy now, Id not worry too much, but what you got is pretty much what they are selling as.

Go ahead and open the bag, and if it's disgusting return it to your local TSC store. They should take it back with a receipt, after all it IS a big box chain. Not to mention, you can't inspect something if you don't open it, so doing so should not be a problem if you unfortunately run into 'having to return it' issues.

Another thing you can do if you are worried, put your oven at a low temp, and throw them in a pot or something and throw it in the oven for a few hours to dry them out, kill off any bugaboo's that might be growing.

Aaron

Edit: Allow me to also add, you also don't want them smelling too yummy either because then the girls might be more inclined to eat them,...not a good thing.

 

[chfriedmam]

Id imagine you are getting recycled grounds. In other words, possibly used previously to make coffee somewhere. Because of that, NO they are NOT going to have that wonderful coffee smell, because that all got sucked out and put into the cup of coffee they were previously used to make. If they were still capable of making a nice cup of coffee, trust me, they'd be doing just that, because it generates a LOT more money than selling you perfectly good beans for compost.

Compost, ... YES, that is what they essentially are. They are going to smell, dirt-y, compost-y. As long as they are not moist and moldy now, Id not worry too much, but what you got is pretty much what they are selling as.

Go ahead and open the bag, and if it's disgusting return it to your local TSC store. They should take it back with a receipt, after all it IS a big box chain. Not to mention, you can't inspect something if you don't open it, so doing so should not be a problem if you unfortunately run into 'having to return it' issues.

Another thing you can do if you are worried, put your oven at a low temp, and throw them in a pot or something and throw it in the oven for a few hours to dry them out, kill off any bugaboo's that might be growing.

Aaron

Edit: Allow me to also add, you also don't want them smelling too yummy either because then the girls might be more inclined to eat them,...not a good thing.

Ya just people rave about the smell! This smells more like a 40 year old woman who smokes 2 packs a day and drinks day old coffee . In my weirdly specific vision she does call me "Hun," but it still stinks

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ya just people rave about the smell! This smells more like a 40 year old woman who smokes 2 packs a day and drinks day old coffee . In my weirdly specific vision she does call me "Hun," but it still stinks

I thought about a laugh emoji, but that imagery was so specific, i felt "Informative" was more appropriate.

and to the others, nothing makes ducks less messy. Best you can do is encourage messy in places you care about less.

also, if you live in a warm, always humid climate (as I do), moldy grounds are virtually guaranteed. Makes this a poor method for some climates, sadly. Better to use them for mushroom farming.