Tema and Kasoa sit on opposite sides of Accra. The hatchery at Opeikuma is west of the capital and Tema is 25 km east of it, so every box of chicks for Tema, Ashaiman or Kpone has to pass the full width of the city. The distance is modest, about 50 km. The planning is all about which hour of the day those 50 km are driven.
Three roads in one trip: the Kasoa road, the N1 highway and the Motorway
The route has three parts, and they behave differently.
- Kasoa to Mallam. The Accra to Cape Coast road through Weija. This is the slow part, with heavy commuter traffic towards Accra in the morning and back out in the evening.
- Mallam to Tetteh Quarshie. The N1 turns north here and runs for 14 km as a six-lane highway, passing round the centre of Accra instead of through it.
- Tetteh Quarshie to Tema. The Accra to Tema Motorway, 19 km of four-lane road that brings you to the edge of Tema.
A private car with a clear road covers all of it in well under an hour. Public transport, with its changes of vehicle, is quoted at a little over two hours. A fair planning figure for chicks is one and a half to two and a half hours.
That is a short journey for a day-old chick. The yolk it absorbed before hatching feeds it for two to three days, so hunger is not the issue between Kasoa and Tema. Heat is. A vehicle crawling past Weija at ten in the morning or standing on the Motorway at noon gets hot inside, and boxed chicks cannot move away from it. Early dispatch and early collection matter more on this route than on some that are five times longer. Our article on transporting day-old chicks safely explains what to watch for.
Boxes to a station, or a morning drive to Opeikuma
For customers outside Kasoa we put the boxes on a bus or cargo vehicle to a station in the customer's town, and the customer collects there. The station is agreed with you before dispatch, and the delivery cost is confirmed before you pay. Your part is to be at the station before the vehicle, with the brooder at home already warm, and to count the chicks when you receive them. Any that arrived dead are replaced free in the next hatch, provided you report it straight away. How the whole service runs is set out on our chick delivery page.
Driving over yourself is a real alternative from Tema. It is about 100 km there and back, most of it dual carriageway, and you leave the farm having seen and counted your chicks. Farm collection is by appointment. Take a morning time, set off from Tema before the city wakes up, and you can be home again before the midday heat. If you farm between the two cities, compare notes with our page for Accra buyers, which goes into the Mallam to Kasoa stretch in more detail.
To start either arrangement, use the order form on this page or call 024 915 1503. Give the type of chick, the number of boxes (one box of 50 is the minimum) and where you are. We answer with the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost. No payment is taken on the website, and nothing is paid until those three are confirmed. The chicks are vaccinated at the hatchery before they leave, so ask what was given and pass it on to your vet when the rest of the programme is planned.
One of the driest corners of Ghana, with a wind off the sea
Tema gets about 750 mm of rain in an average year, which places it among the driest parts of the country, and daytime temperatures stay near or above 28°C all year. The land is a flat, open coastal plain and the wind comes in off the Gulf of Guinea most days. For poultry that combination has clear effects.
- Grown birds benefit from the breeze. An open-sided house set across the wind stays cooler here than the same house would inland. Do not block that air with stores or walls on the seaward side.
- Chicks do not. Moving air at floor level chills them even when the room feels warm to you. Use a solid brooder guard, hang curtains on the windward side for the first weeks, and ventilate above chick height. The brooding guide gives the temperatures to aim for.
- Dry air means dust and thirst. Litter dries out and turns dusty, which irritates the birds' breathing, and water use climbs in the afternoon. Never let drinkers run empty, and keep the supply tank shaded. Our piece on water for poultry covers quantities and cooling.
- When rain does come, it comes hard. A short dry-country storm on flat ground has nowhere to drain. Raise the floor of the house and slope the ground away from it.
If you are siting a new house, the article on ventilation in open-sided poultry houses is worth reading before the first block is laid.
Salt air and what it does to wire, roofing and cages
This section is general coastal experience, not a measurement taken in Tema. Sea air carries salt, and salt eats bare steel. Farms close to the harbour and the beach communities tend to see rust on roofing nails, chicken wire, cage frames and metal feeders sooner than farms a few kilometres inland at Afienya or Michel Camp.
It changes what is worth buying. Plastic feeders and drinkers do not rust. Galvanised wire and cages last far longer than plain steel, so look closely at the coating before you pay, above all at welds and cut ends, where rust starts. Wash dust and salt off equipment between batches and let it dry in the sun. We sell feeders, drinkers, brooders and cages, and prices are given when you ask because they depend on the type and number you need. Tell us that your farm is near the sea when you enquire.
Who buys chicken and eggs in a port and factory city
Tema was built around its harbour, which opened in 1962 and handles most of Ghana's import and export cargo. Beside it stand the factories: aluminium, steel, oil refining, cement, fish processing and food products. The city itself is laid out in numbered communities, and next door is Ashaiman, a municipality of more than 200,000 people at the 2021 census.
From those facts, some reasoning about demand:
- Canteens and caterers. Factories and port businesses feed shift workers, usually through caterers who buy in quantity and on a schedule. A caterer wants the same number of crates or birds on the same day each time. That suits a layer flock, or broilers raised in staggered batches.
- Ashaiman's markets. Ashaiman has its main market and the Naa Amui market at Adjei Kojo (formerly the Mandela market), which grew from trading on two days a week to trading daily. Market surveys of the Tema area also cover Community One, Community Seven, Community Nine and Kpone. Egg traders in these markets are natural buyers for a nearby farm.
- Households. The communities and the newer estates towards Dawhenya and Prampram are full of homes that buy eggs by the crate.
- Frozen competition. Tema is the port through which most of the country's imports arrive, frozen chicken among them, so cheap cold-store chicken is never far away here. A Tema broiler farmer does better selling fresh or live birds to buyers who ask for them than trying to match that price.
For most small farms around Tema, that points to layer chicks (from GH₵ 23 each) for steady egg sales, and broiler chicks (from GH₵ 20 each) only when buyers are lined up. These are starting prices checked on 2 October 2026 and they move, so confirm on the price list.
Where there is still room to farm: Afienya, Dawhenya, Prampram and the Kpone side
Inside Tema's communities there is space for a backyard box of 50 and not much more. Larger flocks go north and east. Ashaiman is bordered by Kpone Katamanso, and beyond it lies Ningo-Prampram, a district with a 37 km coastline where around 60 percent of the land is counted as arable and savannah grassland is common. Farmers there grow cassava, maize, rice, tomatoes, okra, pepper, mangoes and watermelon.
Two cautions before you buy or rent land in that direction. First, estates are spreading quickly. The irrigation scheme at Dawhenya, which produces rice, has lost a large part of its land to encroachment by developers, according to press reports. If state irrigation land can be built over, a poultry plot can be surrounded too, so check who owns the neighbouring land and what is planned for it. Our article on choosing a site for a poultry farm lists what to confirm. Second, water. This is dry country, and a flock of a few hundred birds needs a dependable supply every day of the year, so settle the borehole, tank or pipe question before the house goes up.
Towns that share the Tema route
Ashaiman, Kpone, Michel Camp, Afienya, Dawhenya, Prampram and Sakumono can all be served by the same journey across Accra. Buyers in these places either collect at a station agreed for that order or drive to Opeikuma themselves. If you are on the Afienya or Dawhenya side, say so on the form, because it may change which collection point is easiest for you.
Questions from Tema
How far is Tema from the hatchery and how long are chicks on the road?
It is roughly 50 km from Kasoa to Tema by the Kasoa road, the N1 highway and the Motorway. A private car on a clear road can do it in under an hour. With normal Accra traffic allow one and a half to two and a half hours. That is a short trip for day-old chicks as long as the vehicle is not standing in the sun.
Can my chicks come to Ashaiman or Kpone instead of Tema?
Tell us where your farm is when you order. The station is agreed with you before dispatch, so say whether Tema, Ashaiman or somewhere else is easiest for you to reach, and we will tell you what can be arranged for that hatch date. The delivery cost for the agreed station is confirmed before you pay.
Does the sea breeze in Tema mean I can use less brooding heat?
No. The breeze makes people comfortable, but it strips heat from small chicks, and Tema nights are still far cooler than a day-old chick needs. Keep the heat source on, put a solid guard round the brooder, and close the windward side of the house at chick level. Open it higher up so stale air can leave.
Will salt air damage cages and feeders on a farm near Tema harbour?
Bare steel rusts faster near the sea, and this is general coastal experience, not a Tema statistic. Choose galvanised or plastic feeders and drinkers, check the coating on cage wire before you buy, wash salt and dust off equipment between batches, and expect roofing sheets and wire mesh on the seaward side to need attention sooner than inland.
Is it worth driving from Tema to Opeikuma to collect chicks myself?
For many buyers, yes. The round trip is about 100 km, most of it on dual carriageway, and you see and count your chicks at the hatchery. Leave Tema early, take a morning appointment and be back before midday heat. If you have no vehicle or cannot spare the morning, having boxes sent is the simpler choice.