Planning Poultry for Christmas, Easter and Eid in Ghana

Why festive plans go wrong

Every year, we hear from farmers who had a good flock and a buyer who wanted birds, and who still lost the festive sale. The birds were ready in the wrong week, the buyer had already bought elsewhere, or the price fell because every farm in the district had the same idea. The problem was not the birds. It was the calendar.

Festive demand is steep and short. In the weeks before Christmas, Easter or Eid, buyers want large numbers at once, and they want them at a known weight. Outside those weeks, the same birds can be hard to shift. That is the first thing to understand: the festive season is a narrow window, and the farm has to be built to fill it exactly.

Three festivals, three calendars

Christmas falls on the same date every year, so it is the easiest to plan. Easter moves with the church calendar and falls in March or April. The two Eids move with the Islamic lunar calendar and come about eleven days earlier each year, so a plan that worked for one Sallah can be out by a week or two the next. Each announcement of the Eid date depends on the moon, so plan with a margin, and watch the official announcement closely.

In practice that means you cannot copy last year's calendar. You need to set the festive date for each occasion, then count back from it, every year.

Count back from the day the buyer needs the birds

Start with the date the buyer wants the birds in their hands, not the date you want to sell. Then subtract the time you need for dispatch, holding and the weight band. A broiler chick takes roughly six to seven weeks to reach a typical sale weight, depending on the strain, the feed and the house. If you want birds on the 20th, the chicks need to arrive about seven weeks before that, and the feed plan has to match.

The table below gives a worked lead-time plan for a broiler sale. The figures are examples to show the method. Use the weights and ages your own flock reaches, and check them against your own batch records.

If you plan a turkey sale as well, the timing is much earlier, and our turkey farming guide sets out the lead time for the Christmas market. Keep the two plans on separate sheets, so one does not push the other off the calendar.

Split the order into batches, not one big drop

The most useful rule we know is this: never put the whole festive order in one batch. A single batch of 1,000 birds is a single point of failure. One bad week of heat, a delayed feed truck, or a vaccine reaction can take a large share of the sale with it, and you have nothing to sell in its place.

Split the order into two or three batches a week or two apart. Suppose a farm wants 1,000 birds for the week before Christmas. A plan with two batches of 500, chicks arriving one week apart, gives the farmer two chances to hit the weight band. If the first batch runs late, the second still arrives on time. The cost is one extra house cycle of labour and one extra brooder run, which is a small price for a safer season.

Our Christmas broilers article goes deeper on the chick date for the December peak, and the staggered approach is the same logic applied to a whole flock.

Book chicks early, and say how many you need

Chick supply in the festive months is tight, because every farm that wants birds for December is buying in the same weeks. A hatchery can only hatch and dispatch what it has set, and the farmer who orders in the last fortnight takes what is left.

Tell your supplier the number, the breed, the box count and the date you need the chicks. We confirm each price in writing before payment, and orders of 1,000 or more are quoted individually, so the sooner we know your number the sooner we can give you a firm quote. Our chick prices page lists the starting prices and box sizes, with the note that prices are confirmed at order.

Pricing through the peak without losing your regulars

Festive prices rise, and buyers know it. The trap is raising the price so much that your regular buyers feel cheated, then losing them for the rest of the year. The other trap is holding the price so low that you sell out in two days and leave money on the table.

Set the festive price as a clear step up from your normal price, with a reason you can explain: feed costs, a shorter supply, or a fixed weight band. Put the price in writing before the rush, and honour it for the buyers who ordered early. Then sell any extra birds at the top of the market, not to people who were promised the normal price.

For the method behind the numbers, our pricing guide shows how to work from cost up to a price, and our selling guide covers buyer timing in more depth.

A worked example: where the cash goes before the sale

Festive cash is often late cash. The feed is bought in the weeks before the sale, and the buyer pays on or after the day. This example uses placeholder figures to show the shape of the problem. Replace them with your own before you plan.

A farm plans two broiler batches of 500 birds each, sold in the week before Christmas. Chicks are 20 cedis each at the starting price, which is confirmed at order, so each batch needs 10,000 cedis of chicks before anything else. Feed for each batch is the figure you have to fill in yourself, using your own feed rate per bird and the price your miller quotes this month. We have left it out on purpose, because a feed price that is correct today can be wrong by the time you read this. The point is that by the time the first birds leave the house, the farm has spent most of its cash, and the buyer may not pay for another ten days.

The lesson is simple. Set aside cash for the feed and chicks of the second batch before the first batch is sold. A farm that uses the first sale to buy the second batch's chicks is always one bad week away from a missed peak.

The risks that move the date

Heat and disease are the big ones, but the calendar can also let you down. A holiday that moves, a transport strike, a power cut that delays the brooder, or a vaccination reaction can each push a batch past the day. Build a plan that tolerates a few days' slippage.

The harmattan adds its own risk in December. Dust and cold nights are hard on young birds, and a flock that is stressed in the last week of the cycle may lose weight just when you need it. Keep the house dry, watch the wind, and check the water in the early morning. Our weight chart helps you spot a batch that is falling behind before the sale date.

Disease is the risk you cannot plan away, but you can narrow it. Follow your vet's schedule, keep the house clean between batches, and know what a bad week looks like. Our vaccination schedule article explains the typical timings, and your vet is the person to set your own.

Match the sale to the buyer, not the calendar

A church group, a caterer, a chop bar and a family that wants a bird for Sallah all buy differently. Some want live birds in the morning, some want dressed birds chilled, some want a fixed count. Find out what each buyer needs before you set the batch sizes.

Sell to the buyer who can take the birds on the day, and keep a second buyer in reserve. The festive season is the wrong time to meet a new customer for the first time. If you have a buyer who ordered last year, call them early, before they have made other plans.

Checklist before the festive peak

1. Festive date written down for each occasion, checked against the official announcement.
2. Chick order placed and confirmed in writing at least ten weeks ahead.
3. Batches split into two or three, with dates on a sheet.
4. Feed for the finish bought before the peak, and stored dry.
5. Buyers confirmed one week ahead, with weight band and delivery day.
6. Cash set aside for the second batch before the first is sold.
7. Price written down before the rush starts.

After the season: review the sheet while it is fresh

When the last bird has gone, write down what happened while you still remember it. Which batch hit the weight band? Which buyer paid late? Where did the feed run short? A review in the first week after the peak is worth more than a whole year of guessing.

Keep the sheet for next year. The farmer who can open last December's record and see the chick date, the batch sizes and the price will plan the next season in an afternoon, rather than starting from nothing.

Next steps for this season

Pick the festive date you are aiming at, and count back from it today. Then ring your buyers and ask how many birds they need and on which day. Once you have a number, get in touch with us. Call or WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503, or place a request through the order form. The broiler chicks page has the box sizes and starting prices, and the delivery page explains how chicks reach your region. If you plan to collect from the farm, tell us, and we will confirm a time with you.

Questions farmers ask