Damp, weevils, rats and mould each leave an early sign in a maize store. Learn to read those signs before the flock pays for the mistake.
Halaal Farms Ghana team3 May 2026 · 12 min read
Where does your maize sleep at night? Not in the plan, and not in the notebook, but physically: in a sack against a wall, in a bin with a loose lid, on a shelf above the chicken pen where the damp rises in June. Most of the maize that goes wrong in a Ghanaian store goes wrong in that place, and the keeper usually finds out only when the flock stops eating well.
This guide is about keeping maize through the rains. It is written for the keeper who grows or buys their own grain for feed, and who wants to know where the losses come from and how to stop them. We hatch and box chicks at our place in Opeikuma, Kasoa, and send them to all 16 regions, so we see how many keepers mix their own maize with bought feed. The principles here are the same wherever you are. The local details, such as how fast a shed gets damp, you will have to read for yourself.
One warning before anything else. Stored maize can carry mould that you cannot see. The safest store is the one where you never have to make that judgement with a flock waiting for its feed.
Maize is a seed, and a seed that holds its water sits still and keeps. A seed that picks up water from the air starts to breathe, warm, and invite the things that live on it. In the rains the air is heavy with moisture for weeks at a time, and a store that was dry in the dry months can soak up that moisture through its walls, its floor and any gap in its roof.
The grain is often at its most vulnerable right after harvest. Maize brought in from the field can still be damp inside, even when the outside feels dry in your hand. If it goes into a sack or bin while it is still damp, the heat and moisture build up over the following days. The first sign is often a smell, sweet and sour at the same time, and grain that feels warm when you put your hand in the middle of the sack.
Rain also affects the drying itself. A harvest that comes in during wet weather is hard to dry in the sun, and you may be tempted to bag it before it is ready. That is the moment to slow down, spread it thin and wait for a dry day.
Most losses fall into five groups. Each one has an early sign, and each one has a fix that is easier to apply early than late. The table below is a working list. Keep it in the store where you can see it.
| Problem | Early sign | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Damp grain | Clumps, a sweet or sour smell, grain that feels warm in the middle | Spread it out to dry on a clean, dry surface, then re-bag only when it feels hard and dry. Do not seal damp grain. |
| Weevils and grain pests | Small holes in grains, fine powder at the bottom of the sack, insects moving on the surface | Sieve out the worst, sun-dry the rest, and store in closed containers. Keep a clean sack for each batch and keep the store swept. |
| Rats and mice | Droppings near the sacks, chewed bags, grain on the floor, missing grain with no sign of a spill | Raise the bags off the floor, use sealed bins, and set traps or bait outside the store. Check the perimeter of the store every week. |
| Mould | White, green or black patches, a musty smell, grain that sticks together | Remove the affected grain at once. Do not mix it with clean grain, and do not feed it to the birds. |
| Mould toxins | Often none that you can see. Grain can look fine and still be unsafe. | If you have any doubt about a batch, do not feed it. Ask your MoFA extension officer how to test or dispose of it. |
The last row is the one that worries most keepers, and rightly so. Some moulds produce toxins that build up in the grain and can damage the liver and reduce growth in birds. The toxin does not always come with a visible mould, and you cannot tell by taste or smell alone. That is why the rule is simple: when in doubt, leave it out of the feed.
Drying is the job that decides everything after it. Spread the maize thinly on a clean, dry surface in the sun, turning it so that the grain on the bottom comes up. Keep it off bare ground that holds damp, and bring it in at dusk or when the sky turns grey. A thin layer dries quickly, and a thick heap can stay damp inside for days while the outside looks finished.
To test whether grain is dry enough to store, bite or press a few grains, or squeeze a handful. Dry grain is hard, does not dent easily and makes a sharp sound when it rattles in the pan. Grain that feels cool and soft, or that leaves a mark on the hand, needs more drying. Ask your MoFA extension officer for the moisture level that maize should reach before you store it, and for a simple way to check it on your own farm. Do not rely on a figure from a neighbour or a website, including this one.
Once dry, let the grain cool before you bag it. Warm grain sweats inside a sealed sack, and the water collects on the grain above the sealed air.
Weevils are the pest that most keepers recognise first. The adult beetles bore into the grain, lay their eggs inside, and the young grow inside the kernel. Grain looks whole from the outside, but it is hollowed and light. What you will notice is a fine powder at the bottom of the sack, and small holes in the grains when you look closely.
Weevils spread from the infested grain to the clean grain beside it. Keep the new harvest apart from old stock, and clean out the old sack before you refill it. Sweep the floor of the store, and remove any grain that has spilled into the cracks. A weevil that gets into a bin will move to the nearest food, and a store that is untidy gives it a lot of food.
Sun-drying can reduce some pests, and sieving out the worst grain removes the heavy infestation. Neither is a full cure. The best defence is a sealed container and a clean store, and a regular look at the grain every few weeks.
Rats do more damage than most keepers expect. A rat eats a little and spoils much more, because it leaves droppings and urine on the grain it does not finish. A bag with a single chewed hole can lose far more than the grain the rat actually ate.
Keep grain in sealed containers, and lift those containers off the floor onto a stand or bricks. Keep the store door closed, and check the gaps around pipes and vents. Remove anything that gives rats cover, such as old sacks, heaps of cartons and the plastic bags that build up at the back. Set traps or bait outside the store, not inside, where you cannot check them easily. Empty and clean the traps, and check them every week.
Look for the signs on a regular walk round the store. Droppings are the clearest. Look for gnaw marks on the edges of sacks and the lids of bins. A small pile of grain on the floor under a shelf means something is moving through.
Storing your own maize is worth doing only if the store works and the grain stays clean. A 50 kg bag of ready poultry feed is broadly GH₵400 to GH₵470, depending on brand and season. That is GH₵8.00 to GH₵9.40 for each kilogram. Set that next to your own maize price for the week, which you will have to get from the market or from a trusted seller, because we do not quote maize prices here.
Maize is only one part of a ration. Other ingredients, the mix, and the cost of milling, drying and transport all change the sum. Storing your maize saves money if your losses are small. If they are not small, the saving disappears, and you have lost grain you paid for and feed you still have to buy.
Here is the arithmetic. Suppose you store 100 kg of maize and lose 20 kg to damp, rats and weevils. You now have 80 kg to feed, so each usable kilogram cost you a quarter more than the price you paid for the full 100 kg. That is an illustrative example, not a measured loss, but it shows why the store matters as much as the price of the grain.
A good store is not a big store. It is a dry, closed one, with the grain off the floor, the walls clear of stacked sacks, and a route in and out that does not drag grain across the ground. Set the store away from the flock's pen, so that droppings and dust do not blow in with the wind. Keep a bin for feed you are using and a separate place for grain you are drying.
Use containers that seal. A tight lid on a plastic drum keeps the damp and the rats out far better than a loose sack. Label each container with the date of harvest or purchase, and use the oldest first. A simple habit, such as writing the date on the lid with marker, saves a lot of guessing later.
Check the store every week during the rains. Walk round the outside, look for water coming in, and look at the top layer of each container. Pull out a handful from the middle of a container every few weeks and check it by smell, touch and sight. Keep a short note of what you find. A small note in the first month of the rains can save a whole bin in the third.
Before any grain goes into the mash, look at it again. Check for clumps, warmth, a strange smell, insects, powder and mould. Break open a few grains and look for weevil damage. If the batch passes, mix it with the rest of the ration in small amounts, and watch the flock for two or three days. Droppings, appetite and growth tell you more than any label.
If the flock turns quiet, the droppings change or the birds start to lose weight without a clear reason, stop feeding the new batch and go back to the last clean feed. Then call your vet. Do not try to fix a mould problem with more vitamins or a stronger feed. Remove the source and then decide what to do with the birds.
Grain that is hard, does not dent under pressure and rattles sharply in a pan is much drier than grain that feels cool or leaves a mark on the hand. Ask your MoFA extension officer for the moisture level your store needs and for a simple check you can do on your farm.
Sieve out the worst grains and sun-dry the rest before you decide. A lightly affected batch may be usable after cleaning, but a batch with heavy powder, many holes or a sour smell should not go into the feed. When in doubt, leave it out.
Not necessarily. Mould toxins can be spread through the grain and are not always visible. Removing the mouldy grains helps, but a batch that has been mouldy is a risk. Ask your vet or extension officer before you decide to keep it in the ration.
A sealed container that keeps out damp, rats and insects. Plastic drums and metal bins with tight lids are good choices, kept off the floor and away from the flock. A loose sack in a damp corner is the worst choice, however cheap it is.
The right store only matters if the flock is ready for the feed it needs. Read our guide to storing feed to stop mould and weevils for the bought feed side of the same problem, and buying feed in bulk or weekly for how much to keep on hand. If the price of maize is moving, maize price swings and your margin explains how to plan around it. For the chick side, see our broiler chicks.
When you are ready to order, send the form on this site or call us on 024 915 1503. An order starts with a message, not with money. We confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost before you pay, and you can pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer. Chicks dead on arrival are replaced free in the next hatch. The minimum order is one box of 50 chicks.
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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