Same chick, same feed bag, two very different six weeks depending on whether the house is baking or filling with harmattan dust.
Halaal Farms Ghana team17 September 2026 · 9 min read
A chick from our incubators does not know what month it is. It comes out of the box, drinks, works out the feeder and starts eating. What changes is everything around it: the air in the house, the dust on the wind, how much the bird wants to eat in the afternoon, and what the market looks like on the day it is ready to sell.
Two seasons come up again and again when growers ask us about timing. The first is the hot season, the months when the sun is at its hardest and the air sits heavy before the rains settle in. The second is the harmattan, the dry spell from about December to February when the Saharan wind brings fine dust down the coast. Both can work. Both have caught growers out. The difference between a good batch and a bad one is seldom the season alone. It is whether the farmer planned for that season before the first box came through the door.
We hatch all year, so the question of when to start reaches us in every month. Most of the time the answer depends on three things: the house you have, the feed money you can set aside without touching it, and the day the birds will be sold. The seasons decide how hard each of those three will be pushed.
In hot weather a broiler gets rid of heat mainly by panting and by eating less. That is the root of most heat trouble. A bird that eats less in the afternoon grows more slowly, but it still cost you the same chicks, the same house and the same daily labour. Heat that looks harmless on a thermometer can take the appetite out of a flock, and once the appetite is gone you pay for it in weight.
The signs are easy to miss if you only walk through the house at seven in the morning. Walk through again at two in the afternoon. Look for birds spread out with their wings held a little away from the body, crowding near the drinkers, or panting with open beaks. Look for birds sitting at the edges of the house with no interest in the feeder. Those are the birds that will tell you the house is running too warm.
Water is the first thing to fail in hot weather. A drinker line that was enough in March may not be enough in April, when the birds have grown bigger and the air is dry by noon. Check the lines at least twice a day. Keep the water clean, because warm dirty water is a poor drink. Never let a drinker sit empty, even for an hour. A flock that cannot drink cannot eat properly, and each problem makes the other worse.
Stocking density matters more in heat than most people expect. Birds packed tightly give off heat to each other, and the air near the floor goes stale and warm. If you planned your house for a lighter flock in the cool months, cut back on the numbers before the heat arrives, not after the first bird collapses in the corner. Our guide on cooling a poultry house goes into the building side of this.
The harmattan's trouble is dust and dryness, not heat. The wind carries fine particles into every gap in the wall. The nights can be cold enough that a careful farmer closes everything up to keep the chicks warm, and that is the mistake growers make most often. A house shut tight against the cold also traps ammonia from the litter and the breath of several hundred birds. The flock may look comfortable at dawn and then start coughing halfway through the batch.
So the harmattan asks for two things at once: keep the dust out and keep the air moving. In practice that means curtains or mesh that can be lowered at night and raised during the warmer part of the day, with high vents that let fresh air in while the lower openings stay covered. It is a balance you learn by walking in and out of the house at different times, watching the birds and smelling the air at bird height, rather than by following a rule written on a wall.
The dry air also dries the litter. That helps the feet, since dry litter is kinder to footpads than wet litter, but it means dust rises every time birds move about. Keep the area around the drinkers from drying into powder, without letting it turn to mud. Fine dust that gets into the eyes and lungs of every bird is as serious as wet litter, even when the floor looks cleaner.
Feed changes in the dry months too. Dust settles on mash in open troughs, and birds will eat less of a dusty feed. Cover the bins, keep the troughs clean and empty them before the feed goes stale. A clean trough is one of the cheapest things you can do for a flock in dry weather.
Feed is more than half of what a broiler costs you, so the season matters most when it changes how much the birds eat. Our fact-pack figure is about 4.2 kg of feed per bird to market, reached in six to seven weeks. That is a sound planning number, but it is an average. A hot house can push a flock's total up or down depending on how well the birds eat and how much is wasted on the floor.
Here is the arithmetic, using only those figures as an illustration rather than a promise. Take 100 birds at 4.2 kg each. That is 420 kg of feed, or a little over eight bags of 50 kg. At the GH₵400 to GH₵470 range for a 50 kg bag, feed for one hundred birds comes to roughly GH₵3,360 to GH₵3,950. The chicks sit on top of that. Confirm the bag price with your feed dealer before you budget, because it moves with the season and the brand.
Now put the two seasons side by side. In a hot season, if the flock eats less through the afternoon and slows down, the same 100 birds can take longer to reach weight, and every extra week is another week of feeding. In a harmattan batch the birds often grow steadily, but the cost sits somewhere else: fresh litter when the old bedding turns to dust, covers for the feed bins, and the labour of keeping curtains and troughs right. Neither season is cheaper by default. You pay in different places.
Most season trouble is really a timing problem. A batch that lands in the hot months and is ready in the thick of the heat is one kind of difficulty. A batch that is ready at the wrong time for the market is another, and it often costs more. Work backwards from sale day. Count six to seven weeks, add a few days for loading and transport, and check what buyers near you will want on that date.
Festive demand is real and it moves prices. Christmas and the end-of-year period pull a lot of chicken into the market, and many growers try to have birds ready just before it. Eid and other holidays do the same in their own way. The point is to be ready for that demand rather than surprised by it. A batch that finishes a week after the rush is still a batch, but it may find a different buyer at a different price.
Transport is part of the timing as well. Chicks for the regions often travel by STC or bus, and heat and dust both make that harder. A box of chicks sitting in a hot vehicle is a stressed box. Whether you are moving chicks or grown birds, load in the cool hours, keep the boxes ventilated, and do not leave them in full sun while you wait for the driver. Ask us how your chicks will travel before you pay, so you can plan the day they arrive.
The table sums up what to watch for in each season. These are the broad patterns we see, not a set of measurements. Your house and your management will move them up or down.
| Factor | Hot season batch | Harmattan batch |
|---|---|---|
| Main risk | Heat stress and a drinker line that fails in the afternoon | Dust, cold nights and a house closed too tight |
| Where birds show it | Crowding at drinkers, open-beak panting, low feed through the afternoon | Coughing, watery eyes, birds huddled in the corners |
| What you check daily | Drinker flow, shade, feed left in the trough at midday | Air at bird height, litter dryness, dust on the feed |
| Biggest cost driver | Lost growth from low intake, and extra days on feed | Fresh litter, feed bin covers and labour for dust control |
| Best management step | Clean cool water, shade and feeding in the cooler hours | Mesh or curtains you can open by day and close at night |
| Transport risk | Heat inside vehicles and crates left in the sun | Dust settling into boxes and crates |
Neither is better in general. Start when your house, your feed money and your sale date line up. A well-planned batch can do well in either season, and a rushed one can struggle in both.
No. Keep it closed enough to hold warmth on cold nights, but leave fresh air coming in through high vents, and use mesh or curtains to hold back the dust. Walk in at different times of day and judge by how the air feels at bird height.
At about 4.2 kg per bird to market, 100 birds need around 420 kg in total over six to seven weeks, which is a little over eight bags of 50 kg. Actual use changes with the house, the breed and how well the birds eat.
Yes. Tell us the month you want and we will confirm the hatch date, the price and the delivery cost before you pay. Call 024 915 1503 or send the order form on the site.
Once you know which month suits your house and your market, send the order form on the site or call 024 915 1503. An order starts with a message, not a payment. Before you pay, we confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost, and you can pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer. Chicks that arrive dead are replaced free in the next hatch. The minimum order is one box of 50.
Before you choose your month, read our notes on cooling a poultry house without a fan bill and on stocking density in hot weather. The house decides more than the calendar does. When you are ready, the broiler day-old chicks page lists what we supply, and how to order day-old chicks walks you through the form step by 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.
A weekly weighing routine for broiler farmers: how to pick an honest sample, the weights to compare against from day 7 to day 42, the average and uniformity sums, and what to do when the flock is behind.
Feed cost per kilo of broiler depends on how much feed each kilo takes and what you pay for it. These ten habits lower both without starving the birds or buying additives.
Heat kills the heaviest broilers in the last days before sale. This guide explains why, shows the signs in order, and sets out the house, stocking, water and feeding changes that prevent it, plus an afternoon emergency plan.
