Birds for Eid: plan from the moon, not the calendar

Why the feast date is a range, not a fixed day

Ghana's Muslim calendar runs on the lunar cycle, which means each feast arrives on a slightly different day from year to year. Eid al-Fitr comes at the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha comes about seventy days after it. The exact day is confirmed once the moon is sighted, so most families plan around a window of a day or two rather than a single date.

That uncertainty affects poultry. A bird that is ready a day early can be held for a few days, but a bird that is not ready on time is a problem you cannot solve on the day. The table gives the basic shape of each feast so you can plan around the window instead of guessing.

If you want to test a placement date against your expected sale price, the broiler profit calculator gives you a quick view of the cost side.

Eid al-Fitr: the feast that follows the fast

Eid al-Fitr is a celebration of a month of fasting, and it brings visits, shared tables and a great deal of cooking in the final days. Families who host often want poultry on the table for the first day, and some prefer to buy the birds a day or two ahead so that the cooking is calm. Caterers serving larger gatherings usually ask for their birds earlier than that.

Because the lunar date can move, the safest plan is to fix your placement week from the best date you have, then leave room to adjust your sale a few days either side. A grower who has a flexible collection window handles a moved date far better than one who has promised a single morning.

• Set your placement week from the earliest likely feast date.
• Agree a collection window with buyers rather than a single day.
• Keep a small reserve for guests who arrive late in the celebrations.

Eid al-Adha, the sacrifice and the family table

Eid al-Adha is the feast of the sacrifice, and the animal that is sacrificed is traditionally a sheep, a goat or a cow, not a chicken. Many families still buy poultry for the meals that follow, for guests and for relatives who visit, so there is real demand for birds in the same period. If you are unsure whether a bird can be used for any part of the sacrifice in your community, ask your imam before you plan.

Plan Eid al-Adha birds as family and guest food. Count the number of people you will feed, count the number of households you will share with, and then count the boxes. A flock sized for the table is easier to manage than one sized for every neighbour.

What the name Halaal Farms does and does not tell you

Halaal Farms is the name of our hatchery, and it tells you the farm is run with halaal values in mind. It is not a certificate, and this page does not claim one. The slaughter of a bird is a separate step done by the buyer or the butcher, following the rites your community follows, and that is the point where the halaal requirement is met in practice.

If your buyers or your community need a written assurance, ask your imam or your local Islamic authority what they accept. Then ask us what we can confirm in writing about your specific order, such as the breed, the hatch date and the batch record. We will tell you plainly what we can and cannot put in writing.

Ross 308 or Cobb 500 for a feast order

Both breeds start at GH₵ 20 a chick from us, so the choice is about the bird you want at the table. Both are fast-growing broilers. Both need a clean house, steady feed and careful watching to reach a good weight on time. Neither is a shortcut for poor husbandry.

Tell us the weight your household or your caterer wants and we will say which breed suits that target. If you are comparing options across the season, the breeds page sets them out in one place, and the broiler chicks for sale page covers what to check before you order.

Booking when every family is ordering too

Feast months are busy for everyone who keeps birds, so the people who ask first get the hatch week they want. Message us on WhatsApp or ring with the breed, the number of boxes and the week you need the chicks in your house. We will come back with a hatch date and a delivery cost, both in writing, before any money changes hands. Mobile money, a bank transfer or cash will hold it.

1. Send your breed, box count and target placement week.
2. We reply with the hatch date and the delivery cost in writing.
3. You pay to hold the order, by mobile money, bank transfer or cash.
4. The batch leaves the hatchery on the day it is ready, with its record.

If you are still settling the numbers, the day-old chicks cost calculator turns a head count into boxes and a budget. Our prices page lists the current starting figures for each breed.

Setting up the brooder so the flock is steady by feast week

The first ten days decide how even the flock will be at the end. Put down clean, dry litter, check the heat source before the chicks arrive, and set the feeders and drinkers at a height the young birds can reach without climbing. A brooder that is set up in a rush tends to produce a flock that is uneven in size, and uneven birds are harder to sell as a matched lot.

Walk the house several times a day for the first week. Listen for steady chirping, which means the birds are comfortable. Loud, constant calling usually means they are too cold or too hot. Move the heat source or open a vent, and wait an hour before deciding whether the change worked.

Feeding through the final weeks before the feast

Feed is where most of the money goes, so it deserves a plan of its own. Ask your feed supplier for a programme that moves from starter to grower to finisher at the right ages, and keep the change-over dates on a board in the house. We do not sell feed, so the feed choice is yours, but we can point you to the timing that suits the breed you have bought.

Weigh a sample of birds each week in the final stretch. That single habit tells you whether the flock is on track, and it lets you decide early whether to hold a few days or bring the sale forward. Growers who guess at weight tend to be surprised on the day, and a surprise on feast morning is expensive.

Getting the birds to your town before the feast

We deliver to all 16 regions, and the chicks go out on the day they are ready. A day-old chick can manage roughly two days on the yolk it carries, so a sensible route with a steady vehicle is not a risk in itself. The delivery cost is quoted in writing before payment, so the figure is settled before you commit.

Once your batch is in the house, the rest of the journey is yours to watch. Keep the chicks out of heat and wind, and do not leave boxes standing in the sun while you wait. If you are collecting from a town far from Kasoa, agree the collection window with us before the hatch so nobody is waiting on the road. For route and timing details, the delivery page is the place to start.

Health records and vaccines for a feast batch

Before any chick leaves us it has been vaccinated at the hatchery for Marek's disease, Newcastle disease, Gumboro (IBD), infectious bronchitis and coccidiosis. A batch record travels with the order, and it is worth filing it straight away with your other farm papers. The vaccines protect against the most common early killers, but they work best alongside clean litter, controlled visitors and a house that is cleaned between batches.

If you are planning any further treatments or boosters on the farm, the vaccination schedule calculator counts the dates forward from your placement day, so you do not have to work them out by hand while the house is busy.

Sharing with neighbours and counting the final birds

Feasts are times of sharing, and many growers set aside birds for neighbours, relatives and people who cannot afford to buy their own. Decide that number before the sale, not on the morning of it. Count what you have placed, subtract a realistic allowance for birds lost over the cycle, and then divide what is left between paying buyers and sharing.

• Set the sharing number early and write it down.
• Keep paying buyers' birds separate from the ones you are giving away.
• Recount the flock the evening before collection.

A simple count prevents the most common feast-day argument, which is a buyer arriving for a bird that has already gone to a guest. The free poultry calculators include tools for working out the box count from a head count, which is a good place to start.

Questions farmers ask