Short answer: A poultry calendar works backwards from the days you want birds ready to sell or eggs ready to set, then fits the seasons, the festivals and the chick orders around them. In Ghana the biggest demand peaks cluster around Christmas, Easter and the two Eid festivals, while the rains and the harmattan change feed, housing and losses. Start each restock about seven weeks before the sale week, and check the plan against your own records once a year.
Key takeaways
- Work backwards from the sale week. A broiler for Christmas has to be ordered for a specific arrival date, not for sometime in October.
- Plan repairs and deep cleaning in the dry spells, when the work is possible and the birds are not stressed by the rain.
- Eid moves about eleven days earlier each year. Check the date every year rather than trusting last year's note.
- Build an empty week between flocks. Disease that carries over from one batch to the next is the expensive kind.
- Spend twenty minutes at the end of each month comparing the plan with what happened. The calendar only gets better if you write down the gaps.
Why a calendar beats memory
Most farmers carry a calendar in their heads. They know roughly when the birds go to market, roughly when the rains start, and roughly when the Christmas buyers come round asking. Roughly is the problem. A chick order placed a week late can mean a sale week missed, and a repair left until the first heavy rain can cost a flock.
A written calendar turns the rough memory into a set of dates. It does not need to be fancy. A wall chart, a notebook page or a spreadsheet works, provided you look at it every week. The point is to see the seasons, the festivals and the orders side by side, so you can spot the clashes before they happen.
This calendar is written for a farm in southern Ghana, where most of our customers are. Farmers in the north should move the rainy and dry months to match their own rainfall, and the rest of the plan still works.
The seasons and what each one asks of you
Ghana does not run on four seasons the way a temperate country does. In the south there are two rainy seasons, with a short dry spell between them, and then the harmattan. Each period changes what the birds need and what you need to do on the farm.
| Season (south, approximate) | Weather and risk | Main farm job |
|---|---|---|
| Major rains, roughly April to June or July | Wet litter, damp feed, coccidiosis pressure, leaking roofs | Drainage, litter checks, feed stock kept dry and small |
| Little dry season, roughly July to August | A short hot dry spell, dusty yards, afternoon heat stress | Repairs, cleaning, shade and water checks |
| Minor rains, roughly September to November | Shorter, unsettled rains and cooler spells | Finish repairs and prepare the house for cooler nights |
| Harmattan, roughly December to February | Dust, cold nights, dry air, respiratory risk | Covered feed, ventilated but closed houses, a close watch at dawn |
| Late dry season, roughly March | Heat builds again as the dust eases | Ventilation and water checks, planning for the next rains |
The dates are approximate, and they move from year to year. Watch your own rainfall and let it correct the calendar. A season that starts three weeks late is still a season, and your plan should bend to fit it. Our rainy-season guide and harmattan guide cover the jobs in each of the two hard seasons.
The festive peaks: when the market is loudest
Demand for chicken in Ghana rises at a few predictable points. Christmas is the biggest. Families buy birds in the weeks before, and buyers ask for live birds and dressed birds for the holiday meals. Easter brings its own rush, and the two Eid festivals bring a steady call for birds across many communities.
The two Eid festivals follow the Islamic calendar, which is about eleven days earlier each year. A date that sat in May one year can fall in April the next, and the buying starts a week or two before the day. Check the date each year and plan from it. Do not copy last year's calendar without looking.
Easter moves too, but its pattern is steadier, and most farmers can plan it from their own experience of previous years. The lesson in every case is to find the sale week first, then count backwards to the chick arrival. The rush you see in the last week before a festival was planned months earlier.
Month by month through the Ghanaian year
Use this table as the spine of your plan. Adjust the months to your own rainfall, and fill in your own flock dates alongside. The festival months are the ones to plan around first.
| Month | Season (south) | Farm job | Market note |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Harmattan, tailing off | Check brooder heat and covered feed | Post-Christmas lull, a good time to plan restocks |
| February | Dry and dusty | Service the fans, lamps and water lines | Quiet, so set the spring order |
| March | Dry, heat building | Clean and disinfect between flocks | Eid al-Fitr falls around here in some years |
| April | Major rains begin | Drainage and litter checks | Easter buying in some years |
| May | Major rains | Watch for coccidiosis in wet litter | Eid al-Adha falls around here in some years |
| June | Major rains | Keep feed stock small and dry | Steady demand |
| July | Rains ease, little dry season begins | Repairs and a deep clean | A window to sell older birds before the festive build-up |
| August | Little dry season | Shade and water checks in the afternoon | Maize harvest starts to lift supply |
| September | Minor rains | Rest gap between flocks | Feed prices often ease after harvest |
| October | Minor rains, cooler spells | Prepare the house for the harmattan and place orders | Christmas restock planning |
| November | Harmattan begins late in the month | Brooder set-up, covered feed, vent checks | Christmas buying starts |
| December | Harmattan and Christmas | Close watch at dawn, sales on schedule | Peak demand for live and dressed birds |
Eid and Easter dates change, so mark them in your own calendar each year. The table shows where they usually fall, not where they will fall next year.
Working backwards from Christmas: a broiler example
Say you want 500 broilers ready to sell in the week before Christmas, and your birds reach sale weight at about seven weeks old. Count back seven weeks from the sale week, then add a few days of margin for the chicks to settle and the flock to be checked. That puts the arrival date in late October or early November, depending on the exact sale day.
Ross 308 chicks cost 20 GH₵ each at our starting price. For 500 birds that is 10,000 GH₵ in ten boxes of 50. Before feed, housing, vaccination follow-up, electricity or labour, the chicks are the biggest single item in the budget. A week's error in the arrival date changes the sale week, and with it the price you can get for the birds. Our day-old chick prices article shows how the prices compare across breeds.
The calendar then runs the other way. The house must be empty, clean and disinfected before the chicks arrive, so the cleaning goes in mid-October. Feed orders are placed for the weeks when the birds eat the most. Buyers are lined up before the birds are ready, not after. Plan in October and December becomes a sales month rather than a scramble. For the timing of the sale itself, read our guide to when to sell broilers.
Layers run on a longer clock
Layers take longer to pay back. A pullet reared from day-old to point of lay takes many weeks before her first egg, and the flock lays for many months after that. That changes the calendar. A layer flock that starts in the wrong season spends its laying peak in the harmattan or the rains, and the eggs and the health pay for it.
Work the laying year backwards too. If you want a flock in full lay by the start of the festive season, the chicks go in many months earlier, and the rearing runs through the rains, the dry spell and the harmattan. Our article on rearing pullets through the seasons walks through that period week by week.
Plan the replacement as well. Old hens drop off in lay, and a farm that does not plan the replacement ends up with a short, uneven flock at the worst time. Put the culling and the new pullet order on the calendar at the same time, so there is no gap in the egg supply.
The hatching calendar for eggs
If you set eggs in an incubator, the calendar runs on incubation days. Chicken eggs take 21 days, so a setting in the second week of the month hatches in the fourth week. Guinea fowl and turkey eggs take about 28 days, which moves the whole plan out by a week. Count the days on the calendar when you set, and mark the candling and lockdown dates as well.
Stagger your settings if you can. A single large setting gives you one big batch of chicks in one week, and that is hard to sell, brood and manage at once. Smaller settings spread across the month spread the risk and the workload. Our article on single versus staggered setting explains the trade-offs in detail.
Keep hatch dates clear of the worst weather where you can. A brooder through a harmattan week needs more watching than one in mild weather, and a hatch that falls in a storm is harder to manage. The calendar lets you see those clashes early enough to move them.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
Build in the empty week between flocks
Every farm needs a gap between one flock and the next. Remove the birds, clean the house, dry it, disinfect it and leave it empty for a few days before the next chicks arrive. That gap is the most effective disease break on most farms, and it is the first thing to go when a farmer feels pressure to restock.
Put the empty week on the calendar before the orders go in. Work out the date the last birds leave, add the cleaning days, add the drying and disinfecting days, and only then mark the chick arrival date. If the calendar shows a clash, move the chicks, not the cleaning.
Our article on all-in, all-out flock management goes into how the whole batch moves through the house together. The calendar is where you make that system real, because it puts the empty week on the wall where everyone can see it.
Feed prices follow the harvest
Maize is a large part of most poultry rations in Ghana, and its price follows the harvest. Prices usually ease after the main harvest and climb again in the lean months before the next one. A farmer who knows that pattern can time the big feed purchases, and plan the storage for the stock they are buying.
Buy only what the flock will eat in the next few weeks, unless you have a dry, pest-free store and the cash to hold stock. A large purchase at the right price is worth nothing if it sits in a damp corner until it spoils. The calendar should show the feed buy, the storage check and the date the stock needs to be used up.
Read the feed article alongside this, because timing the purchase is only half of the decision. Our article on storing feed and avoiding mould explains why the store matters as much as the price.
Vaccination and vet visits go on the calendar too
Vaccination and vet visits belong on the calendar, next to the chicks, the feed and the sales. Our birds leave the hatchery vaccinated against Marek's, Newcastle, Gumboro, infectious bronchitis and coccidiosis, and the batch record comes with the chicks. The rest of the schedule is for you and your vet to set.
Typical examples help you see the shape of a schedule. A broiler flock may have a booster or follow-up in the first weeks, and a layer flock will have several more points through rearing and laying. The actual dates depend on the vaccine, the flock and the disease risk in your area, so follow your vet's schedule rather than a copy from a book or a neighbour. Our vaccination schedule guide explains how to ask the right questions.
Put the vet visit on the calendar before the busy weeks start. A vet who can come in a quiet month is worth more than one you call during a festive rush. Keep the batch record with the calendar, so the dates and the products sit in one place.
A monthly review that takes twenty minutes
The calendar only improves when you check it against what happened. Set aside twenty minutes at the end of each month, sit with the record book and the wall chart, and compare the plan with the reality. Write down what went well, what slipped and one change for next time.
- Compare the planned chick and feed dates with the dates the stock actually arrived.
- Note the mortality and the feed used for the month, and compare them with last month.
- Check the sale dates against the buyers you lined up, and record any price you were offered.
- Look at the weather for the month and write down the days that caused trouble.
- Mark the festival dates for the coming three months, and check them against the local calendar.
- Set one job for the next month, and write it on the calendar where you will see it.
When you are ready to plan the next restock, WhatsApp us on +233 24 915 1503 with your sale week and flock size. We can tell you which breed and which arrival date fit the plan, and you can place the order at /#order. For a fuller picture of the costs, our starting budget article works through the numbers.
Questions farmers ask
How far ahead should I order chicks for a festive sale?
Start from the sale week. For broilers that reach sale weight at around seven weeks, the chicks have to arrive about seven weeks before the week you plan to sell, plus a few days of margin. Place the order with a firm arrival date, and check it again two weeks before, because hatch and dispatch can shift by a day or two.
Does the calendar work the same for layers and broilers?
The principle is the same, but the timing is very different. Broilers run on a short cycle, so you can plan a sale within weeks. Layers need months to reach point of lay and then run for a long laying period. Plan layer flocks well ahead, and keep the replacement cycle on the same calendar so the egg supply does not drop without warning.
What if Eid falls on a different date than I planned?
Check the date each year with the local Muslim community or the official announcement, since the moon decides it. If your plan was based on last year, move the buying window to match. The sale week is the thing to protect, so bring the chick arrival earlier or later to keep the birds ready for the right days, rather than changing the sale on a guess.
Should I sell before the rains or after them?
It depends on the flock and the market. Birds that are ready in a heavy rainy week are harder to rear and sometimes harder to move. Where the sale is flexible, aim for the drier weeks, and use the rainy weeks for repairs and clean-up. Write down what the rains did to your birds last year before you decide.
Can I use this calendar in the north of Ghana?
Yes, with changes. The north has a single rainy season, and the harmattan follows it in the dry months. Move the rainy and dry blocks to match your own rainfall, keep the festive peaks where they are, and keep the same principles. Count backwards from the sale week, leave an empty week between flocks and review the plan monthly.
What should I record each month?
Record the chick and feed dates, the mortality and the feed used, the sales and the prices you were offered, the weather days that caused trouble and any vet visits. Keep it in one book or one sheet. A year of these records tells you more about your farm than any general guide, this one included.
Is it worth planning around Christmas if I run a small farm?
Yes, even on a small scale. A small flock that is ready in the week before Christmas can sell quickly and at a better time than a flock that arrives in a scramble. Work out the numbers for your flock size. Even 50 birds, planned from the sale week backwards, are easier to sell than the same 50 birds bought on a whim in December.
