Starter, grower and finisher are three bags with three jobs, and the timing of each switch decides how well your feed turns into weight.
Halaal Farms Ghana team2 September 2026 · 11 min read
Ask a few growers around Kasoa when they changed feed and you will get a few different answers, most of them given with confidence. Some switch when the bag runs out. Some switch on the day the birds look bigger. A few keep the starter going far longer than the label suggests, simply because it is the bag they already paid for. Each of those habits costs money in its own way.
This guide goes through the three phases the way we would explain them to a grower who has never kept a flock. It does not replace the instructions printed on your feed supplier's bag. It is a way of reading those instructions so you know which questions to ask.
A broiler is not the same animal in week one as it is in week six. The chick is small, its digestive system is still developing, and it needs feed that is easy to eat and dense in what it needs for fast early growth. By the middle of the cycle the bird eats far more by weight, and the feed has to carry it without wasting money. Near the end, the goal is steady weight gain on the way to market, not growth for its own sake.
The fact pack anchors the whole picture. A broiler reaches market at around 4.2 kg of feed eaten, in six to seven weeks. Keep that number in mind whenever a shop tells you one bag is the answer for every stage. Feed is more than half of what a flock costs, so phases are not a sales gimmick. They are how the feed bill stays under control.
The starter is the bag your chicks eat from the day they arrive. It is the most important bag in the cycle, because a poor start is very hard to recover from later. Everything in the first stretch is about getting each chick to eat and drink properly.
What to watch in the starter stage:
Keep the starter in use for the stage printed on the bag, and do not stretch it just because the birds look fine. The bag is written for an age, and the birds' growth depends on getting the right nutrition on schedule. If you are unsure when the stage ends, ask your supplier to show you the instructions in writing.
The grower stage is when the birds start to look like broilers. They are bigger, they crowd the trough at every visit, and the house starts to smell like a farm rather than a hatchery. This is also the stretch where the feed bill climbs fastest, so it is the stretch where waste hurts most.
In this phase we would focus on three things:
A word on feed quality, because it is where growers are most often let down. Buy from a shop that stores bags properly and turns its stock over. Look at the bag before it goes in the car. Torn sacks, a bag that feels damp or smells sour, and lumps of feed that do not break apart are reasons to refuse it, even when the price is good. A cheap bag that the birds leave in the trough is not cheap. It is feed you paid for and then threw away, and the birds still come up short at weigh-in.
The finisher is the bag for the final stretch before the birds go to market. It is the bag that puts on weight in the last weeks, and it is the one people are most tempted to bring in early, usually because they are impatient to sell. Resist that. A bird switched too early has not finished the growth the earlier stage was meant to support, and you pay for the difference when the sale weights come in short.
Ask yourself three questions before you move a flock onto finisher:
If your last weeks fall in harmattan, keep an eye on both the feed and the temperature. Cold, dry mornings push birds to eat more to stay warm, which helps only if the house holds its heat and the feeders stay full.
Use this table as a reminder, not as a schedule. The switch day comes from the bag's instructions and your flock's condition, and you should confirm it with your supplier.
| Phase | Where it sits in the cycle | Main job | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | The first stretch after arrival | Get the chicks drinking and eating well | Water, crumble size, empty trays |
| Grower | The middle of the cycle | Build the frame and keep weight gain steady | Feeder space, spillage, sample weights |
| Finisher | The last stretch before market | Put on the final weight for sale | Switch timing, feed used up, cold harmattan mornings |
A 50 kg bag is broadly GH₵400 to GH₵470, depending on brand and season. Confirm the price of the bags you actually use, because they move. Put those prices together with the 4.2 kg per bird figure and you get an illustrative cost per bird.
A 50 kg bag divided by 4.2 kg per bird comes to about 12 birds' worth of feed. At GH₵400 to GH₵470 a bag, the feed for one bird across the whole cycle works out to roughly GH₵34 to GH₵39. Treat that as an estimate, not a quote. It still shows something that surprises most first-time growers: the feed for one bird can cost more than the chick itself at the current box price.
This is why phases matter. Putting finisher bags in front of birds that still need grower feed, or leaving starter in the trough long after it has done its job, both move money in the wrong direction. The loss is rarely one dramatic day. It is a few trays spilled every morning for six weeks.
The simplest way to catch that loss is a feed record. Write down the date each bag was opened, the phase it belongs to, and how many bags the house used that week. Do not guess at the end of the month. A grower who knows that the house used two bags last week, and what the birds weighed on the same day, can see a problem coming. A grower who only sees the bill at the end cannot.
There are two common ways to change from one bag to the next. The first is to switch everything at once on a set morning. Many growers do exactly that, and it works well when the flock is steady. The second is to blend. Mix the new bag into the old one over several days, starting with a small share of new feed, so the birds are not hit with a sudden change in texture and taste.
Whichever you choose, write the date down. A switch you cannot date is a switch you cannot judge. When the next weigh-in comes, you will know whether the new bag and the flock's age are working together.
Two practical points. First, finish the bag you have open before you start the next one, unless the new stage is due now. Second, store feed off the bare concrete and away from rain and rats. Damp feed loses quality quickly, and a bag that has gone musty will not give you the weight you paid for, however good the label looks.
A better bag will not fix a bird that cannot reach water. Check the drinkers every day, and check that the water is clean and moving. In the hot part of the day birds drink more, and the water in the line can run warm. In harmattan the air is dry and dusty, and drinker nipples can clog with dust and litter. Neither problem is the feed, but both show up as slow growth and wasted feed.
Keep the feeders and drinkers at a height that suits the bird's age, and keep the house dry. A damp corner near a leaking drinker is one of the most common sources of trouble, and it is cheap to fix. If your weights fall behind plan, check the house before you change the bag.
You can, but you will usually pay for nutrition the birds do not need at some stages, and you lose the chance to match feed to growth. Most commercial flocks are fed in phases. If a supplier recommends a single bag, ask them why.
The birds may not have finished the growth the earlier bag is meant to support, and the weights at sale can come in short. Switch on the bag's stated stage and the flock's condition, and check the weights before and after the change.
Not necessarily, but the feed should come from a supplier you trust, and the phases should be designed to work as a set. Ask whether their starter, grower and finisher are formulated to be used in sequence.
A 50 kg bag is broadly GH₵400 to GH₵470, depending on brand and season. Confirm the current price with your feed seller before you budget, because prices move.
A feed plan only works if the chicks, the house and the weighing are doing their part. Read our notes on the day-seven weight check so you know when the feed is working, and the 500-bird starter guide for the house and timing side. For the strains we supply, see broiler day-old chicks.
When you have your numbers, send the order form or call 024 915 1503. You can also work through how to order day-old chicks. An order starts with a message, not with money. We confirm price, hatch date and delivery cost before you pay, and you can pay in cash, mobile money or bank transfer.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
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