Big Fan of Coffee Grounds

JennyHeidewald · Apr 17, 2022

I've been using coffee grounds from a local shop for about 2 years (the stuff at the store was seasonal and I have a lot of chickens). I tried pine shavings, pine pellets, sand, sand+ PDZ, it was all awful in one way or another, dust, felt cold, hard to dispose of. I have had good results with coffee grounds, except for the times it gets moldy when my husband missed sifting out those espresso pucks.
A broody raised chicks on it last year and they all turned out fine, but I am interested to hear the results from the necropsy of the chicks from the ones that died. That is heartbreaking, and I am so sad for the OP of the thread, but best to find out what exactly happened before saying what caused the deaths. Hopefully they can find out what it was, sometimes things are ambiguous. It's good to have all the info we can so we can each decide what works best for our flocks.
That being said, I'd most likely use pine shavings if I ever raised any chicks without utilizing a Broody Momma. I am glad the store mentioned is switching back to pine shavings.

Luv Ducks · Apr 17, 2022

It is amazing to me how things can work for one person and not another. I got two Muscovy ducklings, 3 days old last summer. They were kept in my garage in the dark, no light unless someone was out there. They had no heat source other than mother nature. They were fed and watered and cared for regularly and have turned out to be the two biggest and sweetest ducks ever and are perfectly healthy. I got two Khaki Campbell ducklings at the end of February this year. I had a light on them for three days and then took it off. They were kept in my living room at 67 degrees until they were five weeks old and then left outside. They are perfectly healthy, friendly and just fine. Some places it says they have to have 90 degree heat and then reduced every week. Mine were all fine without doing that. Just as some are fine on coffee grounds and others are not. Strange how this all works out. Mine have always been fed duckling feed starting out too and cleaned out regularly and given clean water at all times. Maybe that is what kept them strong and healthy or maybe I was just lucky. Our Rural King has gotten rid of all coffee grounds and only uses the pine shavings now. I had heard of people getting chicks that were on the coffee grounds and they told me that they lost all of them. I am happy to hear that it works for some people just as the lack of heat works well for me when they are kept inside my house.

Quilting Mamma · Jun 30, 2022

We've been saving our coffee grounds for the garden. But.... this might be a better way to use them! Thank you for the suggestion!!!

azygous · Jun 30, 2022

Quilting Mamma said:
We've been saving our coffee grounds for the garden. But.... this might be a better way to use them! Thank you for the suggestion!!!

Please be informed before you use coffee grounds in a chick brooder that coffee has caffeine in it, even spent grounds. Caffeine is very toxic to chicks if they consume it. No need for a necropsy to conclude that coffee grounds equals toxic substance equals toxic poisoning if chicks consume it.

Consider the risk you may be taking using coffee grounds regardless of some people reporting no harm when they used this. It may have been they just got lucky. How lucky do you consider yourself?

Quilting Mamma · Jun 30, 2022

I did not consider that. Thank you for pointing it out. I would NOT want to risk being lucky or unlucky when it comes to our baby chicks. Thank you!

Luv Ducks · Jul 1, 2022

Quilting Mamma said:
We've been saving our coffee grounds for the garden. But.... this might be a better way to use them! Thank you for the suggestion!!!

I was by no means suggesting for anyone to use coffee grounds as that is why the farm supply stores stopped using them. Some people think they are alright and have been lucky but that was pure luck. I am glad that someone let you know it is not a good idea at all. As far as I am concerned they should be kept for the garden.

jBabychickn · Tuesday at 9:30 PM

Buzzard Hill Chickens said:
Our coop is 3 ft by 5 ft for 6 Barred Rock Hens. They only go in the coop to lay eggs and sleep, so the size is just right. We've had chickens for 10 years now, and have always used Sweet PDZ in the bottom of the raised coop. Daily cleanup of last nights poop is a snap every day. BUT, the price of PDZ has gone through the roof this year. A 40 lb. bag at Tractor Supply used to be $10, now it's up to $18. So we looked for a cheaper method of coop bedding, and tried the pine shaving route for about 9 months. Hard to keep the coop as clean as I like and it's dusty as hell.

So after reading about the recycled coffee grounds used for bedding, we decided to give it a try. A 35 lb bag is only $10.99 at Tractor Supply, and 1 bag will cover our coop bottom about 2 inches deep all the way across. Same coverage as about $34 worth of PDZ. Daily clean up is ALMOST as easy as PDZ. We just use a common cat litter scooper to sift the poop, and plop last night's droppings in a bucket. The ONLY downside is that the coffee grounds are almost black in color, so spotting the poop to scoop takes a little bit of looking. BUT, the coffee grounds are even less dusty than PDZ!

So, compared to PDZ, the advantages of the coffee grounds bedding are:
1) Less than a third of the cost of PDZ
2) Less dusty than PDZ by far
3) About half of the weight of PDZ, which is important if using in a raised coop.

I'll let y'all know if I find any drawbacks, but right now I can't find any.

Ken

I swear by this stuff! I stock up on it whenever I can, since my TSC only has it in stock seasonally. It also helps to keep the flies away!

jBabychickn · Tuesday at 9:32 PM

Krugerrand said:
Have you ever used a mix of the pdz and coffee grounds?

Yes, this exactly what I do; it’s genius! I love it, works amazing well for us. I also mix it with sand

RosemaryDuck · Tuesday at 9:38 PM

jBabychickn said:
Yes, this exactly what I do; it’s genius! I love it, works amazing well for us. I also mix it with sand

Please read the entirety of this thread. Coffee grounds are not a safe animal bedding.

jBabychickn · Tuesday at 10:18 PM

RosemaryDuck said:
Please read the entirety of this thread. Coffee grounds are not a safe animal bedding.

I don’t use real coffee grounds, like from my coffee maker or anything... I use coffee ground bedding that you get from TSC or Rural King

Big Fan of Coffee Grounds

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