No single floor-area figure fits every house. Plan from the bird you will have in week six, then check the heat, feed and water against the floor you have.
Halaal Farms Ghana team8 September 2026 · 11 min read
When a box of fifty chicks is tipped out onto a brooder floor, the first thing you notice is where they go. They do not spread out at once. Instead, they run for the warmest corner and pile up on each other, leaving the rest of the floor empty. Plenty of keepers take that pile as proof the house is too small. Sometimes it is. Often it is just what day-old chicks do in their first hours, and the real question is what the flock looks like a few days later.
We hatch and box our chicks at Opeikuma in Kasoa and deliver them to all 16 regions. That means we see a lot of brooders, in every kind of house, from a spare room with a single bulb to a proper pen with a gas brooder. Some are generous. Some are cramped. Most look fine on the morning the box is opened and feel tight by the end of the first week. Space is one of the commonest reasons a batch that looked healthy on arrival starts losing birds early.
I am not going to give you a single floor-area figure and call it the answer. Any number you read without knowing your heat source, your ventilation and the breed you are raising is a guess. What follows is how to plan from what the chicks need, then check that plan against the floor you actually have.
A brooder is working when the chicks cover the heated area and move between heat, feed and water without much fuss. It is too tight when birds sit on each other at the edges, when the same few chicks keep getting trodden on, or when the birds at the back cannot reach the feeder.
Spread changes as the days go on. In the first days a little clustering under the heat is normal, because chicks are looking for warmth and have not learned the layout yet. What you want to see is that cluster loosening. By the end of the first week, most of the flock should be using the whole warm zone and not just one edge of it. If the pile is still tight after that, check three things in order: the heat, the size of the house, and how many feeders and drinkers you have put out.
Watch the birds resting, not only when they eat. Comfortable chicks sleep in loose groups with their heads down and their bodies relaxed. Crowded chicks keep shifting, call out often, and press against the guard or the wall. You can tell the difference from the doorway in about a minute, and it is worth doing that every morning before anything else.
Two birds that arrive on the same morning can need very different floors. Broilers, Ross 308 and Cobb 500, put on weight fast. A broiler typically eats around 4.2 kg of feed from chick to market, and that takes six to seven weeks. By the end of that run the bird fills the house in a way the day-old chick never does. The floor that felt roomy in week one is often too small for it in week five.
Layers grow more slowly and stay in the house for months, so the house has to suit a bird that will still be there long after the first rush. Dual-purpose birds such as Sasso, Kuroiler, Noiler and Plymouth Rock sit somewhere in between. Their pace is different again, and so is the size they reach. Decide what the birds are for before you decide how big the house should be.
My rule is simple. Plan for the bird at the end of its time in the brooder, not the bird in the box. If you size the house for a day-old chick, you will be rebuilding it by the third week, usually with birds already in it.
Here is the order I would work through before the chicks land. It takes an evening with a notebook and a tape measure, and it saves a lot of rebuilding later.
Walk the house with this table in mind. Most crowding problems show up in one of these forms well before birds start dying, so you have time to act if you look every morning.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| Chicks piled in one corner, the rest of the floor empty | Heat zone too small, or the chicks are cold | Check the heat source before you change the number of birds |
| Chicks pressed against the guard or the walls | Floor too tight for the flock | Look at the spread across the house and widen the warm zone if you can |
| Birds at the back cannot reach the feeder | Feeder placement or too few feeders | Move feed closer to the crowd and add a second feeder |
| Damp litter around the drinkers | Spilt water, or drinkers set at the wrong height | Adjust the drinker and clear the wet litter around it |
| Chicks spread evenly, resting and feeding | Space and heat are both working | Keep the morning check going as the birds grow |
Two of those rows point at feed and water, not at the floor. That is worth remembering. Plenty of keepers add birds when the real problem is one feeder for the whole flock, and the crowding goes away the day a second feeder goes in.
The harmattan is the main change. During those months the nights turn cold and dry, and chicks crowd the heat much more. A brooder that looked generous in the rains can feel cramped in the harmattan with exactly the same birds. Plan for the cold weeks, not for the average week. Keep out the draughts, but do not seal the house so tight that the air goes stale, because that is its own problem.
Festive demand creates a different pressure. Around Christmas and Eid, buyers want birds ready at the same time, and keepers are tempted to fill the house beyond what it can hold. Do not do it. A crowded flock in a festive rush loses more birds than the extra ones you hoped to sell.
Transport matters too. Many regional buyers receive chicks by STC or bus, and the birds may have spent hours in a box before they reach the brooder. Lift the chicks out gently, or tip the box slowly, so they do not land in one heap. Then give them time to find the heat and the water. Do not hurry them into a corner, and do not stack the boxes on top of the brooder while you work.
Use the last few days before delivery to make the house ready, not to fix it under pressure. Clean and dry the floor first. Wet litter pushes birds into the dry middle of the house, and that is a crowd you made yourself. Set the heat and check it at chick height, not only at a thermometer on the wall. Put out feeders and drinkers so the flock does not have to share one of each.
Then test the house at night, because that is when the heat and the lights will be needed in earnest. Look at where the warm zone ends. Note the spot where a draught comes in. Keep a notebook by the door and write the first morning's count in it, because the notes you make in week one are the ones that explain week three.
No, and anyone who gives you one without asking about your heat source, ventilation and breed is guessing. Start from the bird you will have in the final weeks, check the heat zone against the floor, and watch how the flock spreads over the first week. If the pile does not loosen, reduce the number or add heat and feeding points before you add anything else.
It is better to bring in one batch at a time and run the house as a single group. Chicks of different ages compete for the heat and the feeder, and the younger ones usually lose out. If you want a second batch, plan a second house or a clean, empty brooder between batches.
Tell us before you pay. We confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost before any money changes hands, so that is the moment to change the number of boxes. Once the chicks are in the box, the house is the one thing we cannot change for you, so settle it first.
Chicks dead on arrival are replaced free in the next hatch. Deaths after arrival are a different matter, so note when you found them and what the brooder was like at the time, and call us with those details.
Our price list gives a starting price per box of 50, for example from GH₵1,000 for Ross 308 or Cobb 500 broilers. Prices move, so confirm today's figure with the farm before you pay.
If you have measured the floor, worked back from the bird at the end of its brooder stay, and found that the house will hold a box of 50 without crowding, you are ready to order. An order starts with a message, not with money. Send the order form on the site, call 024 915 1503, or email support@halaalfarmsghana.com. We confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost first, and no payment is taken on the website. You can pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer once those three things are agreed.
If the house is still not ready, read our broiler chick guide and then the current price list. The piece on why chicks pile up covers the same problem from the other side. When you are ready to order, the ordering page sets out each step.
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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