Fresh wood chips/mulch

[SueT]

What shavings specifically? From milling, sawing, turning..... or chipping the branches freshly cut from the trees felled?

well the shavings in the photo are all from the chainsaw sawing up logs/branches of freshly cut hardwood trees. Some of our shavings come from the wood lathe in the shop. There are various species, some from dead trees, some from green. These are shavings, tho, not chips, and they basically get dried out the day they are cut as I have to move the pile. But this deep litter then sits out in the rain and gets wet again, so there is probably some mold involved, just as there is in the leaf litter in the woods where they dig around when they get to free range. It has worked out okay so far for 4 years. This is probably totally different from getting chips from a tree service.

 

[aart]

This is probably totally different from getting chips from a tree service.

Yes, it is.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

What shavings specifically? From milling, sawing, turning..... or chipping the branches freshly cut from the trees felled?

Ramial wood chippings are the branches from trees trimmed around power lines or other places. The include a lot of bark on which live a multitude of organisms that are usually happily balanced in the natural world, but when you run them thru a chipper, especially with green leaves, and pile them up it can create a petri dish for a toxic overgrowth of molds. This might not always be the case, may depend on other factors, but the chances are rather high.

I suggest aging fresh chippings due to this story, where fresh chippings put in a run killed a flock of birds and the cause of death was determined by poultry experts who tested the birds and the chippings and found a gross over growth of aspergillus molds:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dying-chickens.1129854/

I think the "ramial wood chippings" is probably what I just received. It is more like shavings than chips. I saw a lot of leaves in there, so looks more like tree trimmings. It's no problem for me to have them sit somewhere for a few months. I don't need them right now for the chickens. Better safe than sorry! Thanks for the link about the aspergillus. Very helpful.