Poultry for Livelihood Programmes, Chicks Ordered in Bulk

What a livelihood programme needs from its chicks

A programme that hands out poultry is not buying chicks for one farm. It is buying a set of identical starts for many households, each of which has to succeed with the same birds. That means the batch has to be uniform, vaccinated before it leaves the hatchery, and documented well enough for a donor or a monitoring officer to follow. It also means the delivery has to reach a rural district where the roads and the timing are less forgiving than in a city.

Before you place an order, write down what the programme is trying to achieve. Household income, egg supply for children, a fund that grows over time, and a skills base for young members all call for slightly different choices of breed and house size. The rest of this page follows that decision from the first box to the final report.

Picking a breed for people who are new to poultry

Most beneficiaries have kept a few birds in the backyard, and few have run a managed flock. Pick the breed that fits the household's routine and the programme's goal, not the one with the biggest number on a chart. Our full set of breed notes is on the breeds page. The table below compares the three breeds this page covers, using the starting prices we quote per box of 50.

Dual-purpose birds are usually the easier first step for households with mixed needs, because the family can eat eggs and sell or eat a bird when it reaches market size. A dedicated layer like Bovans Brown suits a group that already has steady feed and a clear egg market, and it asks for more careful management of feed and light from the start.

What a bulk order looks like on paper

Bulk orders are simple arithmetic, but the arithmetic should be written down before the committee signs. At our starting prices, ten boxes of Noiler chicks, which is 500 birds, come to GH₵ 5,500. Ten boxes of Sasso come to GH₵ 6,500, and ten boxes of Bovans Brown come to GH₵ 12,750. Double those boxes for a programme placing twenty boxes, and the totals become GH₵ 11,000 for Noiler, GH₵ 13,000 for Sasso and GH₵ 25,500 for Bovans Brown.

Those totals are starting prices only. The exact price for each order is confirmed in writing, and so is the delivery cost. Ask for both before you budget, and keep the written quote in the programme file with the procurement records.

• Confirm the number of boxes and the breed in one message.
• Ask for the price and the delivery cost in writing.
• Pay only after both figures are on paper.

Training beneficiaries before the chicks come home

Training is best done before the chicks arrive, not after the first losses. The programme's own trainers, or a local veterinary or extension officer, should cover the core topics: setting up a brooder, feeding and watering schedules, litter management, daily checks and keeping a simple record. Hands-on sessions work better than slides, so build a demonstration unit in one household's yard and let the beneficiaries work in it.

We can take your trainers through the batch record that comes with each order, so they can explain what the vaccinations were and when they were given. We do not run the training sessions ourselves, so the programme should plan the trainers, the venue and the attendance list.

Getting chicks to remote districts in all 16 regions

We deliver to all 16 regions, and the chicks leave on the day they hatch. A chick can travel about 48 hours on the yolk it carries, which gives a programme a useful margin, but it does not remove the need for planning. Agree a receiving contact at the far end, confirm that someone will be at the drop point on the day, and make sure the brooders are running before the box is opened.

Plan the delivery date backwards from the house. If the brooders need a day to warm up and the feed is not yet in place, move the date rather than rush the chicks into a cold building. Our full delivery arrangements are on the delivery page, and the delivery guide for day-old chicks covers the practical steps for each region.

Batch records and vaccination for donor reports

Each order is vaccinated at the hatchery against Marek's, Newcastle, Gumboro (IBD), infectious bronchitis and coccidiosis. The batch record that travels with the order names the batch, so the programme can tie each household's birds back to a single hatch. Keep a copy in the grant file. Monitoring officers ask for exactly this kind of traceability, and it saves a great deal of explaining later.

Vaccinations given once the birds are in the field follow a separate timetable, set by local disease conditions and by the bird you chose. The vaccination schedule calculator gives a starting plan, and a local vet should confirm it before the dates go into the programme calendar.

Building housing units that a household can manage

A programme does better with several small, identical units than with one large shared house. Each household keeps its own brooder area, its own feeders and drinkers, and its own litter. When one unit has a problem, the problem stays in that household, and the others keep working. Size each unit to the number of chicks in its share of the box, and make sure the brooder heat is adequate for that number.

Build the units from materials the community can source and repair locally. Raised feeders stop chicks from scratching the feed into the litter, and drinkers placed at a steady height stop water from being spilt and wasted. Look for a dry, shaded spot away from the main path, and check the design with the trainers before the birds arrive.

Budget lines beyond the chicks themselves

A programme budget that covers only the chicks will run short within a month. Feed is the largest recurring cost and has to be planned by the number of birds and the weeks of growth. Housing materials, brooder equipment, transport to the drop point, trainer fees, the vaccinations given after delivery, and the record books all need their own lines. Our day-old chicks cost calculator covers the chick side, and the feed calculator helps you estimate the feed for each unit.

Build in a contingency line for replacement and for the first weeks of higher losses. Do not spend the contingency on new equipment. Keep it for feed and for the vet if a problem appears.

Price the trainers and the transport in the same way you price the chicks: as a list of named items with a unit cost and a quantity. A line that says transport to the district, with the number of trips and the cost per trip, can be checked by a finance officer in five minutes. A line that says logistics cannot, and it tends to attract questions that delay the whole grant.

Allocating boxes fairly across households and groups

Allocation is where many programmes lose the trust of their communities. Decide the selection criteria before the chicks are ordered, write them down, and publish the list of households who will receive birds. Give each household the same share of a box where you can, and record any exceptions with the reason. A clear rule that people can read is worth more than a complicated formula nobody understands.

Where a group, such as a women's savings group or a youth association, is receiving birds together, agree in writing who holds the flock, who feeds it, and how the eggs and birds are shared out. The arrangement is the programme's responsibility to explain, and it is the group's responsibility to honour.

Tracking results for the life of the grant

Monitoring should be simple enough that the beneficiaries can do it themselves. A monthly sheet with the number of birds alive, the feed used, the eggs collected or the birds sold, and the income received gives the programme everything it needs for a progress report. Ask each household to fill in the same columns, so the figures add up across the whole programme.

Use the sheets to compare households with each other, not just against the plan. When one unit lags, the cause is usually housing, water or feed, and a visit by the trainer is more useful than a stern letter. For planning the income side of a laying flock, the layer egg profit calculator lets you test different flock sizes against the feed and egg prices in your area.

Set the reporting rhythm early and keep to it. A monthly return is enough for most programmes, with a short quarterly note on anything unusual such as a disease outbreak, a flood or a household that has left the scheme. Attach photographs only where they show something the figures cannot, such as a damaged brooder or a well-kept unit that others could copy. Keep the raw sheets, not just the summary, because a donor auditor may want to test a few lines back to the source.

Ordering for a programme, step by step

Start by messaging us on WhatsApp or calling with the breed, the number of boxes, the region and the date you need the birds. Both the price and the delivery charge come to you on paper first. Programmes can pay by bank transfer, mobile money or cash, and we do not take online card payments, so plan the payment route with your finance officer early.

If your organisation wants to discuss a longer partnership or a repeat order pattern, visit our partnership page. Farm visits are by appointment, which suits programme staff who want to see the hatchery before a large order. Answers to the most common questions are on the FAQ page, and the current price list is the place to check starting prices before you write the budget.

Questions farmers ask