Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of ground whole hens in broiler starting diets processed through an extruder. In both experiments, the extruded whole hen diet improved growth rate and feed conversion in broiler chicks when compared with the unextruded corn-soybean meal diet. There were no differences (P less-than-or-equal-to .05) in body weight, feed consumption, or feed conversion performance of chicks fed diets in either the extruded or unextruded form. No microorganism colonies were found, using total aerobic plate count, when feed was extruded at 132 or 140 C. These results demonstrate that extrusion technology can be used to process diets containing freshly ground whole hens to produce a nutritionally adequate broiler diet and that the whole hens can be included at 9.3% (dry basis) in a broiler diet. Considerable variation was found for DM, CP, and crude fat percentages among samples of both culled and dead hens collected from a commercial laying operation. The magnitude of this variation emphasizes the need to evaluate critically the chemical composition of hens if they are to be used as a feedstuff.
