A white cockerel is the cheapest day-old chick you can buy from us. At our price check on 2 October 2026 they started from GH₵ 3 each, against GH₵ 20 for a broiler chick. As an example sum, a box of 50 at that starting price is GH₵ 150. Prices change, so yours is confirmed before you pay.
The low price is real, and so is the catch. A cockerel takes four to six months to finish and eats for every one of them. This page is for the buyer who wants to know both sides before sending an order: what these chicks are, how long they take, what a box really costs to raise, and when to put them in the brooder for each festive season.
What a white cockerel is, and what it is not
White cockerels are the male chicks of commercial layer strains. When layer chicks hatch, about half are male. An egg farm has no use for the male half, so the hatchery sorts the chicks on their first day and offers the males on their own. In the brown-egg strains the male chicks hatch pale and feather out mostly white, which is where the name comes from. The sorting itself is described in our piece on vent, feather and colour sexing.
That background tells you what to expect. These birds were bred for their sisters' egg numbers, not for meat. They are active, long-legged and lean, with a narrow breast. They do not suffer the leg and heart troubles of a heavy broiler, they stand heat better, and they forgive a late sale. Many Ghanaians rate the firm meat close to local fowl. What they will not do is grow fast, however well you feed them.
They are also not layers. Every chick in the box is a male, apart from the odd sexing error, so do not buy cockerels hoping for eggs.
Four to six months: the timetable you are signing up for
A broiler is ready in six to eight weeks. A white cockerel on full feed reaches roughly 2 kg live weight at about five months, and on a reduced ration with some foraging it takes nearer six. Some farmers sell lighter birds at four months when a festival falls early.
With this bird the calendar counts as well as the scale. The festive buyer is paying for a mature cock: upright, fully feathered, with a large red comb. A four-month bird can feel heavy enough in the hand and still look young. So when you plan, plan for age first and let the feeding bring the weight.
One box of 50: the chick is the small cost
Here is the arithmetic that decides whether cockerels suit you. A layer-strain male needs roughly 7 to 9 kg of feed to reach about 2 kg, which is around twice what a broiler eats to reach a heavier weight. For one box of 50 chicks that means:
- Chicks: from GH₵ 150 for the box, at the starting price.
- Feed: about 350 to 450 kg over five months, which is seven to nine 50 kg bags. Multiply by the bag price where you live.
- Everything else: brooding fuel for the first weeks, litter, vaccines and any medicines your vet prescribes.
Do that multiplication before you order. In most places the feed line will come to many times the chick line. Choosing cockerels for the chick price means choosing on the smallest line of the budget. Our poultry profit calculator lets you try your own feed price and flock size.
The feed bill can be reduced. Cockerels use bran, milling by-products, greens and what they find in a fenced run far better than broilers do, and the ration can be measured out in the middle months. It cannot be reduced to nothing, and it should never be cut in the first eight weeks or the final month. The feeding plan, phase by phase, is in our article on rearing cockerels for the festive market.
Who cockerels suit, and who should buy something else
Cockerels pay for a particular kind of farmer.
- You have buyers who pay per bird for a live cock. Market traders, households, workplace welfare committees and church or mosque groups buy this way at festive time. Ask two or three of them now what they paid last season.
- You can replace part of the bought feed. A run, cheap bran or by-products nearby, and time to manage them.
- You can fund five months without income. Feed is bought monthly from the first day and nothing comes back until the sale.
- You are learning. A first-time farmer who wants to practise brooding and daily care risks less on a GH₵ 3 chick than on a GH₵ 20 one, as long as the feed is budgeted.
- You are raising birds for your own family's table and gifts.
They are the wrong bird in other cases. If you need your money back in two months, raise broilers. If you sell dressed chicken by the kilo, a cockerel cannot compete with a broiler on feed cost. If you want a coloured meat bird that finishes sooner, Sasso reaches about 2 kg in ten to twelve weeks on decent feed, and you will find it on our Sasso, Kuroiler and Noiler page. And if you only need a few grown cocks for the season, it may be cheaper to buy them grown than to rear a box. We sell live cockerels and other grown chickens too.
When to put chicks in the brooder for Christmas, Easter and Eid
Festive demand is short, and a bird that is ready two weeks late has missed the price. Fix the week you will start selling, then count back about 20 weeks for birds on full feed, or up to 26 weeks if you plan to ration the feed. The table applies that rule to the coming seasons, as at October 2026.
| Festival | Date | Chicks in the brooder by |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas and New Year | 25 December, every year | Mid to late July |
| Eid al-Fitr 2027 | Expected 9 or 10 March 2027 | About 10 October 2026 |
| Easter 2027 | Sunday 28 March 2027 | About 25 October 2026 |
| Eid al-Adha 2027 | Expected 16 or 17 May 2027 | Mid-December 2026 |
The Eid dates are astronomical estimates and the actual days depend on the sighting of the moon. Each Eid comes roughly 11 days sooner than the year before, and Easter moves between late March and late April, so redo the count every year instead of copying last year's date.
Two things stand out for 2027. Eid al-Fitr and Easter fall within three weeks of each other, so one October batch can serve both: sell the biggest birds for Eid and give the rest the extra weeks to Easter. And chicks bought in October are not Christmas birds. At Christmas they will be about eleven weeks old.
The same back-planning for broilers, Sasso, turkeys and guinea fowl is in our guide on when to order chicks for Christmas, Easter and Eid.
How a GH₵ 3 chick still loses money
Cockerel batches rarely fail because of the chick. They fail in one of these ways.
- The feed money runs out in the third month. Rations shrink, the birds stop gaining, and festival week finds them thin.
- The brooding is careless because the chicks were cheap. A cockerel chick needs the same warmth, dry litter and clean water as any other for the first four weeks. Our brooding guide gives the temperatures week by week.
- The date is missed. Birds that are ready in January are sold into a market that has just finished buying, and they go on eating more than 100 grams each a day while you wait.
- Losses come late. A chick that dies in week one costs you GH₵ 3. A bird lost in month four to disease, fighting or theft costs you four months of feed. Keep up the vaccination programme your vet sets, and guard a house of grown cocks in December.
- There are more birds than buyers. Three hundred cocks are easy to stock and hard to sell from one gate. Match the number of boxes to the buyers you have counted.
Space, noise and the house a male flock needs
In the brooder, cockerel chicks need no more room than other chicks. The difference comes later. From about three months, plan on five to six birds to each square metre of floor, so a box of 50 wants a pen of 9 to 10 square metres, and a fenced run beside it if you have the land. Crowded young cocks fight. Our stocking density guide shows how to work out what your house will hold.
Think about the neighbours. Fifty cocks start crowing before dawn from about three months of age. In a compound house or a tight residential area that causes complaints. Speak to the people next door before you stock, or choose a site further out.
Rear the box as one group from start to finish. Never bring in extra birds part-way through, and do not keep cockerels in the same house as younger chicks or laying hens.
Ordering cockerel chicks from Opeikuma
White cockerel chicks come 50 to a ventilated box, and you can order from one box upwards. They are vaccinated at the hatchery before dispatch. Ask which vaccines your box has received, because a bird kept for five months needs a longer programme than a broiler, and your vet or district veterinary office will plan it from that starting point.
Cockerel chicks only exist when layer chicks are hatched, so the number available on any date has a limit. Book early, above all for the weeks when farmers stock for Christmas and Easter. Send the order form on this page or call 024 915 1503 with the number of boxes, your town and the festival you are aiming for. We confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost before you pay, by cash, mobile money or bank transfer.
Customers near Kasoa can collect at the farm by appointment. For other towns the boxes travel by bus or cargo transport to a station agreed with you. Count the chicks on arrival and report at once: any that arrive dead are replaced free in the next hatch. Current starting prices for every bird are on the price list.
Questions buyers ask
How long do white cockerels take to reach market size?
Plan for four to six months. On full feed a white cockerel reaches roughly 2 kg live weight at about five months, by which time a broiler house could have been filled and sold twice over. On a reduced ration with forage it takes nearer six months. Buyers of festive cocks also look for a red, well-grown comb, which only comes with age.
How many bags of feed does a box of 50 cockerel chicks need?
Allow roughly 7 to 9 kg of feed for each bird to reach about 2 kg, so a box of 50 needs about 350 to 450 kg, or seven to nine 50 kg bags, spread over about five months. Kitchen waste, bran and a run can replace part of it, but the birds grow according to what they eat.
When should I buy cockerel chicks for Christmas?
Have the chicks in your brooder by mid to late July at the latest, and in June if you plan to ration the feed. Christmas cocks mostly sell in the fortnight leading up to the day, so the birds must be about five months old by early December. Book the hatch date some weeks before that, because many farmers stock at the same time.
Is October too late to start cockerels for Christmas?
Yes. A chick placed in October is only about eleven weeks old at Christmas and weighs about a kilo or less, with a small pale comb. Raise that batch for Easter or Eid the following year instead. If you need birds to sell this December, broilers placed six to eight weeks before your sale date are the realistic choice.
Why are cockerel day-old chicks so cheap?
They are the male half of layer hatches. Egg farms pay for pullets only, which leaves the males in search of a buyer and keeps their price down. The price tells you about supply, not about the cost of rearing. The same breeding that makes their sisters lay well makes these males slow to put on meat, so most of your spending comes later, as feed.
Will white cockerels lay eggs if I keep them long enough?
No. Every bird in a box of cockerel chicks is male, apart from the odd sexing error, and they are sold for meat. If you want eggs, order layer pullets. If you want a bird that gives both meat and eggs on a backyard or village farm, look at Sasso, Kuroiler or Noiler, which are sold as dual-purpose chicks.