You do not need software to keep proper poultry records. A hardback notebook, a pen and a few firm rules will show what each batch really cost.
Halaal Farms Ghana team29 June 2026 · 11 min read
A school exercise book with a rubber band round it will do more for your farm than an app you never open. Paper does not need a battery or a signal, and it does not forget to save. What it needs is a routine, and a few firm rules that stop the book turning into a pile of scribbles by the end of the first month.
Plenty of keepers run a flock with the sums in their heads. That works until a buyer asks what the last box really cost, or until a bad week turns into a bad month and nobody can say when it started. A notebook answers those questions in minutes, if you wrote the answers down on the day.
This guide sets out a simple paper system: how to set up the book, what goes on each page, how to total it once a month and how to look after it in our humid weather. It works for a few dozen birds or a few thousand, and it sits happily alongside any other records you keep.
Paper has three advantages on a working farm. It does not depend on a charged phone, and power cuts are a fact of life in many places, so a book in the house keeps working when the lights go out. You can write in it with damp hands at the pen, and nothing is lost if the phone ends up in a bucket of water.
Paper also forces a pause. Writing a number down makes you look at it. A figure you tap quickly into a screen is easy to skip, while a figure you have written by hand tends to stay in your head.
You can still use a phone alongside the book. Photograph the pages each week and keep the pictures in a second place. That gives you a backup if the book is lost, damaged or left in the rain, and it takes one minute.
Choose a hardback book with plenty of pages, and buy a second one if you run more than one house. A hardback lies flat on a box lid and survives being knocked about. A soft cover goes limp in the first humid week. Plain or squared pages both work, though squared pages make tables easier to draw.
Write in ballpoint or a pen that dries quickly. Pencil smudges, and some felt-tip inks run when the paper gets damp. Keep one pen with the book, so you do not spend five minutes looking for it when the feed truck is waiting.
Number every page in the top corner before you write anything. Then use the first two or three pages as an index. List each batch by its start date and the page where its record begins. When you come back in month six and need last year's batch, the index saves you flicking through the whole book.
Keep the back pages for totals. Start a running summary at the back, one line per month, with space for money in, money out and birds lost. You fill it in once a month, and it grows as the book grows.
Every batch gets a fresh page or pair of pages, written before the chicks arrive. Start with the date you ordered and the hatch date. Our eggs spend 21 days in the incubator at about 37.5°C before they hatch, so the hatch date is the one to write down, because it sets the age of the birds from day one.
Write down what you ordered: the breed, the number of chicks and the number of boxes, since one box holds 50. Record the price per chick and the total you agreed. Note that the farm confirms the price, hatch date and delivery cost before you pay. When you pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer, write the date and the amount.
Note the delivery cost on its own line. Transport adds to the cost of a batch, and it is easy to lose in a general total. Note any chicks dead on arrival too. We replace dead-on-arrival chicks free in the next hatch, so record the date and the number, and check the replacement when it comes.
Last, copy down the vaccines your batch received. We tell you what was given with each batch, so write it into the book at once. A record of vaccines is the first thing a vet or a buyer will ask about later.
The daily line is the heart of the book. It should take two minutes or less, and it should be written on the same day, at about the same time, every day. A line written at the end of the week is a guess.
Each daily line carries the same few things: the date, the number of birds you counted alive, the deaths with the cause if you know it, the feed given in bags or kilograms, and a short note on anything unusual. For a layer flock, add the eggs collected in the morning and the afternoon. For a broiler flock, add a weight check when you make one.
Write the number alive as a count, not an estimate. Walk the house and count, even when you feel sure of the figure. That count is what you will check against your sales, so an estimate that is off by a few birds throws the whole month out.
Use one short word for any unusual thing: "wet", "cold", "sick", "bought feed", "power cut". Those are the words you will search for when a problem comes back, and they cost you nothing to write.
The table sets out a simple layout for the pages you will use most. You can rule your own columns, but keep the order the same, so every batch reads the same way.
| Column | Write this | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Day, month and year | Lets you line the book up with feed bags, sales and weather |
| Birds alive | The count you made that day | The base for mortality and for every sale |
| Deaths | Number, and the cause if known | Shows whether losses are rising |
| Feed given | Bags or kilograms used | Tracks the feed bill against the weight you sell |
| Eggs (layers) | Morning and afternoon counts | Shows the lay rate and gives early warning of trouble |
| Notes | One or two words | Points you back to the reason for a change |
| Money in and out | On the day it changes hands | Keeps the cash honest and easy to total |
Keep feed purchases on their own page. Write the date, the brand, the bag weight, the number of bags and the price paid. A 50 kg bag broadly costs GH₵400 to GH₵470, depending on brand and season, so a bag bought at GH₵450 should look like a GH₵450 bag in your book. If a price looks wrong, you want to know why.
Keep sales on a page of their own as well. For each sale, write the date, the buyer, the number of birds, the weight if you weighed them, the price per bird and whether the buyer has paid. The paid or owing column matters more than most keepers expect. Money owed that stays unpaid is a leak you can only see if you write it down.
Write sales out of the flock count on the same day. If the daily count does not match the sales plus the deaths, a bird is missing, and the book will tell you when it went missing.
Once a month, sit down with the book and add up the back page. Total what you spent on chicks, feed, vaccines and transport. Total what came in from sales, and what is still owed. Count the birds lost and divide by the number you started with.
Here is a worked example, purely as an illustration. A batch of 100 chicks that loses 4 birds over the month has a mortality of 4 per cent, which sits inside the well-managed range of around 3 to 5 per cent. If the same batch loses 15, it is at 15 per cent, which is in the poor range of 10 to 20 per cent. The number tells you where to look, and the notes on the daily lines tell you why.
Work out feed per bird sold too. Add up the bags used, convert them to kilograms, and divide by the birds sold. Our figure for broilers is about 4.2 kg of feed per bird to market, so a much higher figure is worth investigating.
Write the tally in the back of the book and date it. A set of monthly tallies you can compare is the best tool a small keeper has for deciding whether to expand, change breed or stop.
Never erase in the book. If you make a mistake, draw a single line through it, write the correct figure beside it and initial the change. A page with a rubbed-out number looks like something you are hiding, even when it is an honest error, and it stops you trusting your own figures.
Keep the book dry. Humidity on the coast can make pages cockle and ink bleed within weeks. Store it in a plastic bag or a sealed tin, somewhere dry and away from dust. A book left on a shelf beside the feed bags soon picks up dust and smells.
Take the book with you when a buyer or a vet asks for it. A record that stays at home is not much use when someone needs to see it, and a clear page can settle a question on the spot.
Keep old books. Do not throw a book away when it is full, and check with your accountant how long business records should be kept for tax purposes. A shelf of old books is the evidence of what your farm has done.
A book earns its keep when it shows you a change early. Look for a rise in deaths over three or four days, a drop in the morning egg count, feed use that climbs without a matching rise in weight, or a cluster of notes such as "wet" or "cold". Each one is a question to answer that day.
When you see a change, check the daily lines against the notes, then walk the house. Look at the litter, the drinkers, the feeders and the birds themselves. If the cause is not clear, or birds are sick, call the vet. The book will help the vet too, because it shows the timeline.
Write down what you did, with the date and the result. Over a year, that short list of decisions is the most useful thing the book holds.
No. A notebook, a pen and a routine are enough. Some keepers later copy the monthly tally into a spreadsheet, which is a sensible next step once the habit is firm. The paper book stays the original.
Write the day as missed, with the count you can estimate, and say so. Then carry on the next day. An admitted gap is better than a page of figures you make up later.
Yes, once a week. Keep the photos in a second place, such as a second phone or cloud storage, so that a lost book does not mean lost records.
Some will. A clear book with dated lines, the vaccines given and the deaths with their causes gives them something concrete to work from. Keep it neat enough to show.
The best day to open a record book is the day you order your next batch. Open a fresh page, write the order details and wait for the chicks. Send the order form on the site or call 024 915 1503. Before you pay, we confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost, and no payment is taken on the website. The minimum order is one box of 50 chicks.
For the money side in more detail, read the simple farm records guide. If you keep layers, the daily egg record guide is a good companion. For treatment and withdrawal dates, use the treatment record guide, and see how to order to get started.
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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