Wood Chips for Poultry Litter ,

Abstract

Green wood chip litter from standing pine, hardwood trees, and a 50/50 pine-hardwood mix was compared to shavings from air-dried lumber. Eight-week old weight, feed conversion, and mortality of broilers reared on the four litter types were not significantly different (P<.05). There was a slightly greater breast blister involvement with broilers reared on all types of wood chip treatments. Although the initial moisture of the wood chip litters was high (42.2% for hardwood chips and 50.8% for pine chips), the moisture content of all litter was similar after the eight week growing period.