Bolgatanga is about 790 km by road from our hatchery at Opeikuma, Kasoa. A coach needs 15 to 17 hours on a good run, and it can take longer. We would rather you knew that before you order than found it out at the station. Chicks and guinea keets can be sent this far and arrive in good condition, but the journey leaves less margin than any shorter route, and most of what protects that margin is in your hands at the Bolgatanga end.
Where the fifteen hours go
The route is the main north road: Kasoa to Kumasi, then the N10 through Techiman, Kintampo and Tamale, and on for another 160 km to Bolgatanga. An overnight plan for this route looks roughly like the table below. The real departure time is agreed with you when the hatch date is confirmed.
| Stage | Part of the day | What it means for the chicks |
|---|---|---|
| Vaccination and boxing at Opeikuma | Day of hatch | The yolk reserve is full. Chicks settle in ventilated boxes of 50. |
| Kasoa to Kumasi | Evening | The slowest traffic of the trip, but the day's heat is already fading. |
| Kumasi to Tamale | Through the night | The longest leg, done in the coolest hours. This is why night travel suits the north. |
| Tamale to Bolgatanga | Morning | The sun is up and the air is drying. Every hour from here costs the chicks water. |
| Station in Bolgatanga | Late morning or around midday | The hottest and riskiest moment. You need to be there already. |
Published coach timings from Accra to Bolgatanga are about 13 and a half hours, to which the Kasoa leg and station stops must be added. Delays happen. One newspaper account of a coach trip from Accra to Navrongo, about 30 km beyond Bolgatanga, describes a journey that should take around 12 hours lasting 20, because of station stops, traffic leaving Accra and rough stretches of road. That was one trip, not the rule, but it is why we quote a range and ask you to keep your phone on.
A day-old chick carries a yolk reserve that keeps it going for roughly two to three days, so even a long delay is inside what a chick can survive. Survival is not the same as arriving well, though. Each extra hour in a warm box takes water out of the chick. Our page on chick delivery across Ghana explains how stations and timings are arranged.
March to May is when this route is hardest
Bolgatanga lies in the Sudan savannah, the driest and hottest belt of Ghana. Rainfall is put at 800 to 1,200 mm a year and nearly all of it falls between May and September or October. The months before the rain are fierce. At Navrongo, half an hour up the road, average afternoon highs in March are about 40°C, and the highest temperature ever recorded in Ghana, 43.8°C, was measured there on 26 March 2017.
Now put that beside the table above. A box that reaches the station at midday in April meets that heat after a night on the road. If your dates are flexible, a first batch is easier to receive between June and February. If you must bring chicks in during the hot months, tell us, so the earliest possible arrival can be planned, and collect the moment the vehicle stops.
December and January bring the opposite problem. The regional water agency gives night minimums of about 13°C for the Upper East in the harmattan, with afternoons still hot. That is the widest swing between day and night that a Ghanaian brooder has to handle, so heat is needed after dark even when the afternoon felt like an oven. The article on preventing heat stress in the hottest months covers older birds, and the chick brooding guide gives the brooder temperatures.
On arrival in the hot season: get the boxes into shade at once, carry them level with clear space round the air holes, and give cool (not cold) clean water before any feed. Dip a few beaks so the chicks find the drinker. Chicks that sit hunched and silent need warmth and water first, and counting second. The hour-by-hour plan is in our article on the first 24 hours after receiving chicks.
Guinea fowl country, and why keets are the hard part
The Upper East is the part of Ghana most associated with guinea fowl, and research backs up what farmers here already say about them. A survey of 720 guinea fowl keepers across the three northern regions found that Upper East households kept about 36 birds on average. Close to nine in ten farmers in the region named keet deaths as their main problem. About two thirds of all eggs were laid in the rainy season, and more than nine in ten farmers hatched them under local hens. A hatchery operator in Tamale told the Ghana News Agency in 2026 that local guinea fowl lay for only about six months of the year.
Put together, those facts describe the trap. Keets appear in a rush during the rains, the wettest and riskiest time to raise them, in small clutches of mixed ages under hens that cannot keep them all warm and dry. A box of hatchery keets is a different starting point: 50 birds of the same age that can be brooded together under controlled heat. We supply guinea keets from GH₵ 17 each (a starting price checked on 2 October 2026, and it changes). Not every hatch includes keets, so ask which dates have them.
Be realistic about them all the same. Keets are smaller and more fragile than chicks, they need more warmth for longer, and they will have been travelling for most of a day. Begin with one or two boxes, keep the brooder dry and free of draughts, and read the article on raising guinea keets through the first six weeks before they arrive. The keets, poults and quail page has more on ordering them.
Selling in a market that meets every third day
Bolgatanga market does not follow the days of the week. It comes round every third day, so the market day moves through the calendar and your selling plan has to follow it. Live birds are what a market like this handles, which suits guinea fowl, cockerels and coloured birds such as Sasso, Kuroiler and Noiler (see the Sasso, Kuroiler and Noiler page). Sasso starts from GH₵ 13 and Kuroiler and Noiler from GH₵ 11.
As a regional capital the town also has government offices, schools and colleges, guest houses and food sellers. It is reasonable to expect those to be the buyers for broilers and eggs, but that is reasoning on our part and not a count, so speak to two or three such buyers before you order broiler chicks at from GH₵ 20 or layer chicks at from GH₵ 23. Broilers also carry the highest heat risk of any bird in this climate, so time a batch to finish outside March to May.
There is one more buyer that farmers elsewhere do not have in the same way. In the dry season, farmers around Bolgatanga grow onions, tomatoes and pepper under irrigation, and vegetable growers on thin savannah soils need manure. What comes out of your poultry house has value here. The article on handling and selling poultry manure explains how to make it saleable.
Millet and sorghum grow here, chick starter does not
About four in five people around Bolgatanga farm, and the rainy-season crops are millet, sorghum (guinea corn), maize, rice, beans and groundnuts. Those grains can go into rations for older birds with the right advice, but a day-old chick or keet needs a properly made starter feed from its first meal. Before you send the order form, find out who in town stocks chick starter and what it costs, then buy at least the first two weeks' supply before the chicks are dispatched. With one harvest a year, grain prices usually rise in the months before the new crop comes in, so a farmer who buys and stores maize after harvest feeds birds more cheaply than one who buys as the bag runs out.
We sell poultry feed at Kasoa and the price is given when you ask, since it moves with the cost of grain. Over 790 km the freight on bagged feed is heavy, so treat that as a fallback and not as the plan.
Navrongo, Bongo, Zuarungu, Tongo, Paga, Sandema and Zebilla
Zuarungu is next door to the east and Tongo, in Talensi, is a short way to the south-east. Bongo is to the north, in the district that holds the Vea Dam, the source of Bolgatanga's piped water. Navrongo is about 30 km on along the N10, with Paga beyond it at the Burkina Faso border and Sandema to the south-west of Navrongo in Builsa country. Zebilla lies east on the Bawku road. For the nearer towns a Bolgatanga station is the obvious meeting point. If you are in Navrongo, Paga or Sandema, say so on the form, because the main road continues that way. Farmers beyond Zebilla should read the Bawku page.
Placing a Bolgatanga order
Send the order form on this page with the bird, the number of boxes (50 to a box, one box minimum), your town and the month you have in mind. We come back with the price, the hatch date and the transport cost to Bolgatanga, and you pay only once those are agreed, by cash, mobile money or bank transfer. No payment is taken on the website. Chicks that arrive dead are replaced free in the next hatch if you count on arrival and report it at once on 024 915 1503.
Questions from Bolgatanga
How long are chicks on the road to Bolgatanga?
Fifteen to 17 hours from Kasoa on a good run, and sometimes longer. Published coach timings from Accra are about 13 and a half hours, and the Kasoa leg, station stops and slow stretches add to that. A chick's yolk reserve lasts two to three days, so the trip is survivable, but prompt collection is not optional.
Is there a time of year I should avoid ordering chicks for Bolgatanga?
If your dates are flexible, avoid receiving a first batch between March and May. Those are the hottest months in the Upper East, with afternoons around 40°C, and chicks arriving after a long trip have little reserve against heat. June to February is easier, though harmattan nights in December and January need steady brooder heat.
Will guinea keets survive the trip from Kasoa to Bolgatanga?
Keets can make the journey, because they hatch with the same yolk reserve as chicks, but they are more delicate and need more warmth for longer once they arrive. Start with one or two boxes, have the brooder hot and dry before you leave for the station, and count and report any losses the same day.
Where do farmers in Navrongo, Bongo or Zuarungu collect?
A station in Bolgatanga is the usual meeting point for Zuarungu, Bongo and Tongo. Navrongo is about 30 km further along the same main road, and Paga and Sandema lie beyond it, so tell us your town on the order form. The station is agreed with you before the chicks leave Kasoa.
Can I find chick starter feed in Bolgatanga?
Check before you order, not after. The crops of the area are millet, sorghum, maize, rice and groundnuts, and compound chick starter has to come from a feed seller. Find out who stocks it and at what price, and buy at least the first two weeks' supply before the chicks are dispatched.