In order to observe an effect of the components of rice hull(RH) on the utilization of nutrients in chicks, the RH of 100 g were digested in 800 ㎖ of water or 0-25N HCl, NaOH and NaC10₂ at 135℃ and the pressure of 3.2 ㎏/㎠ by autoclave for 30 minutes (water, HCl, NaOH and NaC10₂-30-RH). The contents of neutral detergent fiber(NDF), acid detergent fiber(ADF) and lignin were analyzed in the washed and dried RH meal. Hatched single comb White Leghorn male chicks were fed for the first 10 days with a commercial chick mash and for the subsequent 8 days with 7 kinds of experimental diets which contained 17.0% of wheat bran (basal), cellulose(cotton meal), HCl-30-RH, NaOH-30-RH, NaC10₂-30-RH, water-30-RH and nontreated RH, respectively. The water, HCl, NaOH and NaC10₂-30-RH had lost 4.4, 19.7, 24.0 and 9.6% of dry matter, respectively. And the dry matter loss of the water-30-RH was mainly originated from the extractable cell contents, the NaOH and NaC10₂-30-RH from the cell contents and hemicellulose, and the HCl-RH from the cell contents and NDF of the nontreated RH. The RH heated with chemicals did not affect body weight gain, feed conversion, nitrogen balance and digestibility of crude fat. Also the effect of chemical treatment was not found on the energy utilization of the RH while buds fed NaOH-30-RH tended to increase the energy utilization of diet. Metabolizable energy(MEn) intake and protein retention per birds or metabolic body size(㎏^(0.75)) were not affected by the chemical treatment of the RH. When birds were fed the RH diets, the MEn required for gram protein retention was 35-40 ㎉ which was higher than 31-32 ㎉ of birds fed wheat bran and cellulose diets.