Day-old chicks in Northern Region: Tamale, Yendi and the villages beyond

Can day-old chicks really travel 620 km to Tamale?

Yes, and they do it well when the trip is planned properly. A chick that has just hatched still carries the yolk it absorbed in the last hours inside the egg, and that yolk feeds it for up to about 48 hours. Tamale is roughly 620 km from Opeikuma, Kasoa, and the road takes 10 to 12 hours. Yendi is a bit further on, so the trip into the eastern part of the region can add a few more hours. Both journeys fit inside the 48-hour window, but they leave far less margin than a trip to Kumasi.

We say this plainly because farmers in the north have often been told that chicks cannot be brought so far, or have lost a batch to a badly managed trip. The difference between a good arrival and a bad one is almost never the distance. It is the heat in the vehicle, the number of hours the boxes wait at a station, and whether the farmer is there to collect the minute they arrive.

This page walks through the whole trip for Northern Region: the clock, the heat, the harmattan, the water supply, and the birds northern farmers actually want. The price list is on the prices page, and the general delivery rules are on the delivery page.

The 48-hour clock, hour by hour

Think of every northern order as a clock that starts when the chicks hatch. The table shows how we plan it. Times are typical, not promises, because roads, checkpoints and breakdowns happen.

Notice what the clock implies. A chick that reaches Tamale after 12 hours on the road has used about a quarter of its 48-hour reserve. If it then waits half a day at a station, travels another three hours by motorbike in the sun and sits in an unprepared house, the reserve is gone and the chick is weak. That is how deaths occur. So the work for a northern farmer is less about the long road and more about the short last mile.

When you order, tell us the town, and ask on WhatsApp for the expected arrival time. We will confirm it, along with the delivery cost, in writing before you pay anything.

Heat: the real danger for chicks in the north

In Northern Region the hot months, especially February to April, can bring daytime temperatures well over 35 °C and hot nights too. A chick’s comfort zone is about the temperature of a warm hand, and a closed box in a hot vehicle quickly becomes an oven. Overheated chicks pant, spread their wings and drink frantically; those that have been too hot for too long arrive weak or dead with wet, ruffled down.

We pack boxes with ventilation holes for exactly this reason. What you can do on your side is simple.

• Collect early in the morning if the vehicle arrives overnight; do not leave boxes on a pavement in the afternoon sun.
• Keep the boxes in shade, level, with air circulating around them.
• Never cover the boxes with polythene or tarpaulin.
• If you travel by motorbike or tricycle from Tamale to a village, carry the boxes in front of you, not strapped behind the exhaust, and go in the cooler part of the day.

In the brooder, the northern problem is the opposite of the southern one. A farmer in Kumasi worries about keeping chicks warm in a wet spell. A farmer in Tamale in April may need almost no added heat during the day, only at night, and will need shade, cross-ventilation and a thermometer. Watch the chicks, not the lamp: spread out and quiet means comfortable; panting at the edges means too hot; huddled and noisy means too cold.

Harmattan: dust, cold nights and chesty chicks

From roughly December to February the harmattan blows in from the Sahara, and in Tamale and Yendi it is felt strongly. The air is dry and dusty, mornings and nights can be surprisingly cold, and afternoons turn hot again. For chicks this swing from cold nights to hot afternoons is the challenge, more than the dust itself.

Cold nights: brood the chicks inside a smaller, draught-free space with a heat source, and use sacks or panels to cut the wind at floor level. Dusty days: keep litter slightly damp rather than powder-dry, sweep dust off drinkers and feeders, and avoid shaking dusty bedding near the chicks. Dust irritates the breathing passages, and infectious bronchitis, which we vaccinate against, hits harder when birds are stressed.

The harmattan is also the best season for some things. Disease pressure from wet-weather parasites is lower, litter stays dry, and demand around Christmas, New Year and, in some years, Eid is strong. A farmer who plans carefully can start chicks in late October or November and have birds for the festive buyers in December and January.

If you are setting up for the first time, read our brooder setup guide, and adapt it for your season using the notes above.

Water: plan it before you order

Water is the single biggest constraint on poultry in the north, and we would rather be honest about it than sell you chicks you cannot water. A thousand broilers drink a surprising amount by week five. Even a modest flock of 100 chicks needs a reliable supply every day, and in hot weather birds drink roughly twice as much as in cool weather.

Many Northern Region communities depend on boreholes, hand pumps, small dams or dugouts, and during the dry months the sources can run low, the water can turn salty or muddy, and the walk to collect it can be long. Before you place an order, answer these questions honestly.

1. Where will the water come from every day for the next six to eight weeks, including the hottest weeks?
2. How will it be carried to the pen, and by whom?
3. Is it clean? Cloudy or muddy water should be allowed to settle or be filtered before use.
4. Where will it be stored so the sun does not warm it? Warm water is refused by birds in a heat spell.

As a rule of thumb, use a covered container in the shade, rinse drinkers daily, and put drinkers on a raised block so that litter does not fall in. If your water supply is uncertain, start with a smaller number of chicks and a hardier bird such as a Sasso, Kuroiler or guinea fowl rather than a fast-growing broiler, which suffers more quickly if water runs short.

Guinea fowl keets: the northern favourite

If one bird defines poultry in the north, it is the guinea fowl. It is eaten at celebrations, sold in markets, and kept by households that want a hardy bird that finds much of its own food. Keets are more delicate than chicken chicks in their first weeks, though, and they reward careful brooding.

Our guinea fowl keets start from GH₵ 17 each, which is GH₵ 850 for a box of 50. Here is what we have learned about keeping them alive in the north.

• Warmth first. Keets need steady warmth for the first three weeks or so. In the north the heat is rarely the problem in the day, but cold harmattan nights are.
• Feed. Use a good starter feed. Keets grow quickly and do best with feed that is higher in protein than ordinary chick starter. Ask us for advice when you order.
• Dry floors. Wet litter is the keet’s enemy. Keep it dry and avoid slippery floors, because keets that slip can injure their legs.
• Nervous temperament. They panic easily. Limit noise and visitors in the first two weeks.

You can also buy guinea fowl fertile eggs from us at GH₵ 10 each, or use our egg hatching service if you already have eggs from your own flock; ask for terms. For a full guide to the bird, see our page on guinea fowl keets in Ghana.

White cockerels: the budget bird that sells in the north

Cockerel chicks are the male chicks from layer breeds, and the buyers in the north know them well. At GH₵ 3 a chick, GH₵ 150 for a box of 50, they are the cheapest way to start a meat flock, and farmers raise them for the household pot, for sale at the local market, and for celebrations. They grow more slowly than a broiler and do not reach broiler weights, but they cost very little to start and are comfortable with simple feeding.

Here is a quick comparison for a northern farmer deciding between birds, using starting prices.

See our dedicated page on cockerel day-old chicks for feeding plans, and compare local-style breeds on Kuroiler and Noiler chicks.

Tamale, Yendi and the Dagbon farming year

Tamale is the largest town in the north and the natural hub for deliveries: traders, feed sellers, vets and transport from the whole region meet here. Many farmers from smaller towns collect their chicks in Tamale and carry them on, so a trip to Tamale is often the first leg of a longer one. Yendi, the seat of the Dagbon traditional area, is an older town to the east, and farmers there sometimes order for a whole community.

The farming year shapes poultry. Rains come once a year, usually from around May or June to September or October, and most households put their labour into maize, millet, groundnuts, yam and rice. Poultry is the quiet second income. After harvest, from about November, families have both money and time, which is why we see more enquiries for the dry months, and why the cooler dry season is an excellent time to start chicks.

Festivals matter too. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha create real demand for birds in the Muslim communities that make up much of the region, Damba and other Dagbon celebrations bring families together, and Christmas and Easter matter in Christian communities. Work out the dates for the coming year and count back. A broiler is ready in about six weeks; a Sasso or a cockerel needs longer, so start those earlier.

Wherever you are in the region, we send to your town station if there is transport to it. Tell us the nearest town and we confirm the route.

A worked example for a Tamale farmer

A farmer near Tamale wants a mixed first flock for the Christmas season: guinea fowl for market buyers and cockerels for the household and neighbours. Starting prices, before delivery and before confirmation in writing:

On top of the GH₵ 2,000 you must budget for transport (confirmed by us before payment), feed, water carrying, bedding and health costs. If the same farmer chose 100 Ross 308 broilers instead, the chick bill alone would be GH₵ 2,000, and it would need more feed and more water in a shorter time. The cheaper chicks are not automatically the better business; the better business is the one that matches your water, feed and buyers.

For help on budgeting the whole project, read how to start a poultry farm in Ghana on a budget, then send your plan to +233 24 915 1503 on WhatsApp.

The arrival checklist for the north

Use this the day before and the day of delivery.

The day before

• Clean and dry the brooder; spread fresh litter 5 cm deep.
• Fill and warm (or cool) the space to a comfortable level and test it for four hours.
• Fill a covered water container; rinse the drinkers.
• Put starter feed in shallow trays.

On the day

1. Be at the station before the vehicle arrives.
2. Open the boxes in shade and count carefully.
3. Photograph any dead chicks and send the photo on WhatsApp to +233 24 915 1503 the same day, so we can replace them free in the next hatch.
4. Transport the boxes home straight away, in the cooler hours if you can.
5. Dip beaks in water. Offer feed.
6. Check every two hours for the first night.

Chicks from a long trip may look sleepy and take an hour to start drinking. This is normal. Give them clean water, quiet, and the right temperature, and most perk up quickly.

How to order for Northern Region

Message us on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503, or use the order form. Tell us the breed, the number of boxes and your town. We reply with the price in writing, including the delivery cost to your station, and you pay by mobile money, bank transfer or cash only after you have agreed. The minimum is one box of 50, and orders of 1,000 or more are quoted individually.

Neighbouring regions have their own pages: see Savannah Region to the west, North East Region to the north and Upper East Region. The hub page of all regions lists the rest, and the FAQ answers common questions. If you want to see the hatchery first, you are welcome by appointment; read about us to understand how we work.

Questions farmers ask