FEED WITHDRAWAL AND LEGHORN HEN CARCASS COMPOSITION

Rendering is an important alternative to food processing for the dispo sition of spent commercial laying hens in areas were fowl processors a re distant from farms or when prices for spent hens are very low. Fast ing commercial laying hens at the end of production allows egg produce rs to increase income from egg sales by not having to pay feed costs f or a few days. This extra income can help offset the costs of flock re moval. However, if fasting alters body compositions, it could affect t he value of spent hens to a renderer. This, is in turn, would affect t he length of fast that would maximize net returns. To investigate the possibility that fasting changes hen carcass composition, second-cycle hens in two commercial flocks were fasted for period of 0 to 3 days a nd then killed. The feather-picked carcasses were analyzed for water, protein, fat, ash, calcium, phosphorus, and a variety of trace element s. Although there were significant differences between the two flocks in water, fat, ash, and phosphorus content, the length of time off fee d appeared to have little influence on carcass composition. This sugge sts that the value of spent hens based on body compositions does not c hange on a per pound basis during a fast. Egg producers, therefore, ca n fast hens to maximize net returns from egg sales without having to a ccount for more than the simple daily loss of body weight.