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Spent hen disposal has become an increasingly difficult problem in the layer industry. Traditional methods of disposal such as burial or incineration are either not feasible or environmentally irresponsible.

In some areas it may be prohibited. Even though composting is an option in most areas it is costly, requires large areas for the bird populations and still leaves a byproduct to be disposed of. It is much more economical and responsible to use the millions of spent hens available each year as a feed ingredient. This makes the highest and best use of this poultry asset.

Kentucky Enrichment Inc. has identified innovative processing technologies for converting whole spent hens into a high quality feed ingredient suitable for pet food, aquaculture, cattle, hogs and poultry. These technologies have been combined into a complete processing system for this sensible approach of a nagging disposal dilemma.

The resulting feed ingredients are a highly digestible source of protein, fat and other nutrients. It is also safe to feed to any livestock as pathogens are destroyed during processing. This process has been approved by the FDA as an alternative to rendering and the product has an AAFCO definition.

Spent hens are often two years old having been carried through at least one molt. The birds are not attractive to human food processors, due to their age and small size, and are unwelcome at landfills. Rendering is often not an option since the large number of birds disposed of at one time still have their feathers attached.

Typically 100,000 to 150,000 birds are in one laying house and the entire house is cleaned out at one time with the birds being disposed of in three days. Very few options are available for such large numbers of birds over so short a period of time.

Kentucky Enrichment Inc has put together a system to process 50,000 birds per day in an indoor plant which keeps the entire process from unloading to finished product out of sight. At 13,000,000 birds processed per year this plant can handle the needs of most regions of the world. The system is modular, therefore, if more capacity is needed it can be added without complications.

No unusual air or water quality problems exist with this process and no odors escape the plant. It does not have the discharge or odor problems of a typical rendering facility.

The process completely destroys any pathogens in the birds and neutralizes any antibiotics found in the carcasses. The dried product stores well and flows freely. It can be provided in pelleted or granular form and is highly digestible and very palatable.

The processing the whole hens involves grinding the carcasses and mechanically rendering them with a vegetable carrier, usually soybean meal, cotton seed meal, or similar product depending on local availability.

The product of this system is a good substitute for fish meal and soybean meal in typical animal and fish diets. It has excellent by-pass protein, a good amino acid profile, and is highly digestible.

Kentucky Enrichment Inc is a client oriented organic processing company formed to handle the needs of industry and agriculture in providing a value added rather than waste disposal alternative. Our philosophy is that organic matter belongs in the soil or as a feed ingredient not in a landfill.

Our technical people have 11 years in feed processing technology applications and 16 years in composting and soil amendments. Even the company CEO is a certified composter. We lead the industry in byproduct processing by innovative applications of existing technologies to make an input ingredient of what would otherwise be a disposal problem. As part of this we operate the largest static pile compost facility in Indiana.

Our projects include processing the offal, mortalities and spent hens in the poultry industry. Other projects are to process the litter from poultry and the manure from swine and cattle. We have projects involving anaerobic digestion, composting and feed processing. We have a project under way in Mexico which will produce 40,000 tons per year of fish feed for the aquaculture industry substituting poultry for fish meal in the ration. Two similar plants are planned in the United States. Our joint venture currently processes the litter from multiple poultry houses into cattle feed in Georgia, USA. We can even manufacture concentrated fish protein from fish byproducts.

We have projects in design on behalf of the States of Georgia, North Carolina, and Kentucky in the USA and Sonora and Jalisco in Mexico. We have consulted on numerous animal waste projects in the USA, Canada and Mexico. We are very active in the processing of vegetable matter including composting, feed production, and energy production.

Our engineering firm, Wright-Pierce of Maine, has world wide experience in waste water treatment, anaerobic digestion, landfill remediation and animal waste processing. We operate a joint venture with them involving water treatment for farms and energy generation.

Kentucky Enrichment Inc has a joint venture with Mark-IV Consulting on the production of biodiesel fuel from animal fat and from oil seed. We are preparing an ethanol project for a client in the South East USA. Iowa Protein Inc can handle a variety of value added processing techniques.