Build or Buy: Poultry House Cost in Ghana

The question under the question

Farmers ask us whether they should build the house themselves or pay a company to put up a ready kit. The honest answer depends on a question they have not asked yet: how long will this house need to last, and how many flocks will it carry before you would want to change it?

A house built to last fifteen years and a house built to last six are different purchases, even if they hold the same birds. Divide each cost by the flocks it will carry, and the cheap house is often the expensive one. The sums in this guide show how to do that without guessing. Halaal Farms supplies chicks and hatching, not buildings, so the figures here are illustrative and the quotes that matter are the ones you collect locally.

Whatever birds you keep, the house decides how well they grow and how much work the house gives you back. Our broiler day-old chicks page and layer day-old chicks page show the batch sizes that the house has to carry.

Four routes to a house, and what each one asks of you

There are four routes, and most farms end up with one of them or a mix. You can build with your own labour and local materials. You can hire a mason and a carpenter to build to your drawing. You can buy a prefabricated or steel-framed kit, which a supplier erects. Or you can convert an existing building such as a store or an old shed. Each route moves the risk to a different place.

Whichever route you pick, the drawing is what protects you. A house built without one is a set of decisions made badly in the middle of the work, and each of them is paid for twice.

Where the money goes in a poultry house

The walls and roof attract the attention, but the cost lines run longer than that. Before you compare two offers, check that each one prices these lines separately.

• Site preparation: clearing, levelling, and any cut or fill on a sloping plot.
• Foundation and floor: footings, a damp course, and a concrete or compacted floor with drainage.
• Walls: blocks or timber posts, plaster or cladding, and the gable ends.
• Roof: frame, purlins or trusses, sheeting, ridge cap, gutters and fixings.
• Openings: doors, vent openings, curtains or inlet mesh.
• Services: a water point, wiring for lights and fans, earthing, and a socket for the pump.
• Drainage and yard: a soak-away or channel, and the ground around the house that stops water running in.
• Permit, professional fees and the transport of materials.

On most sites the roof and walls take the largest share of the spend, but the foundation and drainage cause most of the regret later. Keep both at full value on the list, even when a quote shows them as a small line.

Local materials: block, timber, steel and roof sheets

Concrete block is the common wall material across most of the Central Region. It holds heat better than timber and resists rodents, and a well-built block wall on a proper footing outlasts most timber houses. It needs the right mortar, and a bond course where the foundation can move, or the wall will crack at the joints.

Timber is cheaper to start and quicker to put up, and it suits an open-sided house with a good roof. Use hardwood or treated timber for posts that sit near the ground, because untreated wood rots at its base within a few seasons in the damp. Bamboo is cheaper still, but it needs treatment and careful fixing, and it splits and rots without them.

Steel frames last longest in damp months and in termite country, provided the galvanising and paint are kept in good order and the fixings are right. For roof sheets, check the gauge and the coating. A thin sheet dents in the harmattan winds, and a poorly coated sheet rusts along the overlaps. Ask the supplier for the gauge and coating in writing. Cement, timber and steel prices move through the year, so check today's market before you fix a figure in your plan.

A cost per bird place, with illustrative figures

The sum that settles most of these decisions is cost per bird place per cycle. Take the whole cost of the house, divide it by the years it will last, then divide again by the birds it holds and the cycles it runs each year. The figures below are illustrative placeholders for a house of 600 birds running five cycles a year. They are not quotes. Replace them with your own figures from builders and suppliers before you decide.

On these placeholder figures the cheapest house to build is the most expensive to own. The block house costs nearly twice as much up front and comes out cheaper per bird each cycle, because it lasts. The ready kit sits between the two, and its real advantage is that the birds arrive sooner.

The table leaves out interest on borrowed money, repairs, the months when the house stands empty, and what you get back if you sell or move. Add those in with your own figures. Interest matters most when the money is borrowed, and a house that stands empty while you wait for a loan is the costliest house of all.

Permits, land and paperwork before the first block

Before you pour a foundation, find out what your district assembly needs for a building of this kind. Ask about the building permit, the plan they want to see, the fees and how long approval takes. Rates and requirements change, so check the current position with the assembly rather than relying on what a neighbour paid last year.

If you rent or lease the land, get the lease in writing and check how long it runs against the life of the house. A block house on rented land becomes a gift to the landlord when the lease ends, while a steel kit can be taken down and moved, which is one of its real advantages. If the land is family or communal, get the agreement in writing before you spend the money. The Lands Commission can advise on questions of land registration.

The cheap decisions that matter more than the material

Orientation, eaves and openings cost very little at the design stage and a great deal to change later. A house with its long side across the prevailing wind lets air move through it. A house with its long side facing the afternoon sun takes heat through the walls for hours. Eaves that overhang the walls keep rain off the openings, and openings that can be closed on a windy night give you control without a fan.

Height matters too. A low roof traps heat under the sheets and makes the house hard to work in. Plan the ridge height so the warm air can rise and leave, and so fans can be fitted without a ladder over the birds. Our ventilation guide covers the airflow arithmetic, and our broiler house setup guide covers the fit-out inside the shell.

When a ready kit makes sense

A ready kit wins when the birds need a roof soon and the base is already in place. It also suits a farm that expects to move, or that rents a site for only a few years. It makes sense when nobody on the farm can supervise a block build, and when the plot is small enough that the kit's footprint fits without wasting ground.

• You need birds in the house within weeks, and the base is ready or can be ready quickly.
• You expect to move the house, or you hold the site only for a few years.
• You have nobody skilled enough to supervise a block build to a drawing.
• The footprint of the kit fits the plot without leaving awkward gaps.
• The supplier erects the kit and gives a written guarantee on the frame and the roof.

Read the kit's specification closely. Look for the frame steel's coating and thickness, the roof sheet gauge, the wind rating if the site is open and exposed, and the foundation the supplier expects. Many kits assume a concrete base that you must build yourself, so the base belongs in the price even when the kit does not.

When building it yourself makes sense

Building yourself saves the builder's margin and lets you change things as you go. It makes sense when you have time, a clear drawing, someone who can lay blocks and set posts properly, and a person who will not let a corner be cut. It does not make sense when the house is needed before the rains. A half-built house holds no birds, and every week it stands unfinished is a batch of chicks you could have placed but did not.

Keep a simple progress log with dates, the work finished and the materials bought. A self-build with no log is hard to finish, and harder to cost honestly when the money runs short halfway through.

A quote checklist for builders and kit suppliers

Put the same questions to every builder and every kit supplier. An answer you cannot get in writing is an answer you cannot rely on later.

1. Ask for a drawing with the dimensions, the height, the openings and the foundation detail.
2. Ask for each cost line separately: foundation, walls, roof, floor, openings, services, drainage and permit.
3. Ask for the block and mortar mix, the timber treatment, and the steel coating and gauge.
4. Ask for the roof sheet gauge, its coating, the fixing method and the expected life.
5. Ask who pays transport, offloading and any hire of equipment.
6. Ask for the completion date and what happens if the work runs late.
7. Ask for the workmanship warranty in writing, for a stated period.
8. Ask whether the price includes the permit, the fees and the site clearing.
9. Ask for two references from houses finished in the last two years, and visit one of them.
10. Agree to pay in stages against finished work, not against promises.

Mistakes that make the house cost more later

• Pouring the floor before the drainage and the levels have been checked.
• Buying the cheapest roof sheet and finding dents and rust along the overlaps within a season.
• Building too close to the boundary or the road, then needing a change to fit the permit.
• Leaving out the water point and the earth, then cutting into a new floor to add them.
• Choosing a width that cannot take the fans and curtains, so the air dies in the middle.
• Sizing the house for the first batch only, so the second batch has nowhere to go.

The last mistake is the most common one we hear about from farms that call us for chicks. The house is full by the second flock, and the extension costs more than the original building would have. Our house size guide shows how to plan the floor for more than one batch, and our guide to building a cheap chicken coop is the one to read if your flock is small.

Before you commit: the site check

Walk the plot after rain, not only in the dry season. Look for water standing in low spots, the path it takes off the road, and the shade trees throw across the proposed house at midday. Check the distance to the power line and the water point, the road for delivering feed and collecting birds, and the wind direction during the rains. A house on the right site costs less to run, and a house on the wrong site costs you every year it stands there.

Once the house is ready, the next step is the birds. Our day-old chicks overview explains what we supply and how it is packed, and you can place the order through the order form. Message us on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503 with your house size and we will tell you what batch it can take. Chicks leave the hatchery the day they hatch, and our delivery page covers the regions we reach. You can also read more about us before you visit.

Questions farmers ask