Study design

Two hundred day-old village chicks were randomly allocated using random tables into four 'brooding surrounds' which had been prepared for the experiment in the poultry house. Each surround was randomly assigned one of four diets.

Surrounds were made of mesonite board. Dry hay straw was used as litter material for the first two weeks and sawdust thereafter. Litter was spread to a depth of 5 cm.

Clean drinkers and feed trays were evenly distributed as shown in each of the surrounds.