Broiler chicks for Easter: working back from the holiday

Working back from Easter Sunday

Easter is the holiday that moves. It can fall anywhere from late March to late April, so do not rely on what you did last year. Find Easter Sunday on the calendar first, then count seven weeks back to the day the chicks should be in the house. That is your placement week. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Ghana, so buying is spread over several days, and your birds need to hit sale weight before the first of them.

The table lays out the rough plan. Each row is a number of weeks before Easter Sunday with a job attached. None of the steps is hard, but they are easy to skip when the holiday still feels far away.

To see what a placement date does to your costs before you commit, the broiler profit calculator runs feed and chick costs against your expected sale price.

Who buys birds at Easter and when they buy

Easter brings a different crowd to Christmas. Families hosting for the weekend order ahead, community groups plan their purchases a week or two out, and caterers want birds in hand before Good Friday rather than on the Saturday. Those three groups tend to set your sale window, so speak to them before you place the order, not after.

Prices move with demand, but a rough rule holds. The days just before the holiday are busier than the days after it. You can plan the timing, but the price you hear in the market in the final week is the one you either accept or wait out.

• Households buying for the family meal usually buy in the last few days.
• Caterers and event hosts often want birds a week ahead.
• Walk-in buyers come on the day, so keep a few birds back for them.

Avoiding the glut in the week before Easter

The biggest risk at Easter is not the price of one bird. It is everyone selling at once. When many growers in the same district place chicks on the same weekend, the market fills with the same birds in the same week, and buyers take their pick. The fix is to spread your own sales, and the simplest way is to split your order across two hatches.

Take two boxes instead of one, and ask for hatch dates a week apart. The first box reaches market weight for early sales, and the second arrives at weight as the first clears. You keep a second chance at the top of the market, and you are not left with a full house of ready birds on the morning before Good Friday. This is a planning call, not a guarantee, so keep your buyers informed as the date gets close.

Pre-orders help more than anything else. A buyer who has agreed a price and a collection day is not shopping in the market that week.

Ross 308 or Cobb 500 for an Easter sale

Both breeds leave our hatchery at the same starting price, GH₵ 20 a chick and GH₵ 1,000 a box of 50, so the choice comes down to the bird you want to put on the table. Both are fast-growing broilers that reach market weight within a similar window when they are fed and housed properly. Neither is a magic bird, and the results depend on your house, your feed and your care.

Ask your buyers what weight they want before you decide. If they want a larger bird for a bigger family table, talk that through with us and we will tell you which breed fits the target. The breeds page lists the options side by side, and the broiler chicks for sale page covers what to check before you order.

Booking the hatch week with us

Send us a WhatsApp message or ring with three things: the breed, the number of boxes, and the week you want the chicks in your house. We will tell you the hatch date that matches that week, then confirm the box count and the delivery cost in writing. Nothing is paid until you have seen those figures. Pay by mobile money, bank transfer or cash.

Hatch slots are easier to get eight or nine weeks out than in the final fortnight before placement. Late messages still get served, but the week you wanted may already be taken by someone who asked first. If you want a clear view of how reservations hold a date, our pre-order page walks through it.

1. Message us with breed, boxes and your placement week.
2. We confirm the hatch date, box count and delivery cost in writing.
3. Mobile money, a bank transfer or cash will hold the order.
4. The chicks leave on the day they hatch, with the batch record.

What a box costs you before the birds are sold

Start with the chicks. A box of 50 Ross 308 or Cobb 500 chicks is GH₵ 1,000 at our starting price, which works out to GH₵ 20 a bird before delivery. That is the figure you carry into the rest of the budget, along with feed, litter, medicines and your time. Starting prices are exactly that, so the figure confirmed in writing for your order is the one to use.

Our price list sets out the starting figures for every breed we hatch, if you are comparing options for a second or third batch in the same year. Work the chick cost into your day-old chicks cost calculator before you settle on the number of boxes.

Getting the house right for a March or April placement

A spring placement has its own weather. Temperatures in the Central Region can climb quickly in March and April, and the air can be humid once rain arrives. The house needs warmth in the first days, then airflow as the birds grow. The mistake people make is sealing the house for warmth and forgetting it will be hot by the second week.

Set the feeders and drinkers up the day before, check the lamps, and make sure water is clean and reachable from the first hour. Watch how the birds spread out over the first week. Chicks that crowd under the lamp are cold, and chicks that pant with their wings held away from the body are too warm. Adjust the ventilation and the lamp height, and watch again within the hour.

Vaccines and the paperwork that comes with your chicks

Each chick leaves the hatchery already vaccinated against Marek's disease, Newcastle disease, Gumboro (infectious bursal disease), infectious bronchitis and coccidiosis. Together those cover the infections that cause most of the early losses in a broiler flock. The vaccines are a head start, not a substitute for clean litter, sound biosecurity and a farm that is kept tidy.

A batch record is included with your order. It is the document to file with your records, and it gives you a clear reference if a buyer or a vet asks what the chicks received. Dates for any further doses on your own farm can be planned with our vaccination schedule calculator, which counts forward from the day the chicks arrive.

Transport, arrival and what a damaged chick means for you

Chicks go out the same day they hatch, and we send to all 16 regions of Ghana. A chick can travel around 48 hours on the yolk it took in before hatching, so the time on the road is manageable when the boxes are handled well. The delivery cost is agreed in writing before payment, so you can add it to the budget from the start.

On arrival, open the boxes in a shaded place, count what you have, and note any bird that is dead or clearly weak. Report those to us with the count the same day. Dead-on-arrival chicks are replaced free in the next hatch. For how the route and timing work in your area, see the delivery guide or the delivery page.

Selling the birds and protecting your margin

Sell the pre-ordered birds first, while the market is still deciding what it wants. Then move the rest in the days before Good Friday. A few growers hold birds back in the hope of a late rush, and that gamble often leaves them with heavy birds in the final hours and a weaker price. Agree the sale days with buyers in advance, and keep a short list of people who will take a bird if the market is slow.

• Set a floor price before the week starts, and hold to it.
• Weigh a sample a few days out so you know what the flock is doing.
• Keep a note of feed used and birds sold for next time.

Once the sale is done, run the actual figures through the broiler profit calculator so you can compare the result with your plan and adjust the placement week for the next batch.

When an Easter batch falls behind

Sometimes a flock grows slower than planned, and the holiday does not wait. If birds look dull, stop feeding well, or start dying in numbers, call your vet before you change anything else. Do not guess at medicines. Check the house first: litter wet around the drinkers, poor airflow, and water lines that have stopped flowing are common causes of slow growth that have nothing to do with the chicks.

If the flock is behind, the honest options are to sell a little lighter, hold for a few days where your buyers allow it, or move part of the batch to a later market. Tell your buyers early. A buyer who hears about a delay a week ahead will still do business with you. One who hears about it on the day will not.

Questions farmers ask