Every batch starts on a Thursday. Our chicks hatch on Thursdays at 7:00 in Kasoa, and the weekly report that tells you how your batch is doing also arrives on a Thursday. That rhythm is deliberate. It means you never have to guess how old your birds are or when the next piece of information is due.
What follows walks through one batch from placement to payout, stage by stage, as it looks from the investor's side. It covers what happens in the house, what should appear in each Thursday report and the questions worth asking at each stage. The stages are the same from batch to batch. The numbers move with the season, the feed price and the weather.
| Stage | What happens in the house | What your Thursday report should show |
|---|---|---|
| Week 0 | Chicks placed and vaccinated at day 0 | Chick count, placement photo and first notes |
| Weeks 1 and 2 | Brooding heat, water and early care | Weight, feed used and losses so far |
| Weeks 3 to 5 | Feed intake rises steeply | Weight trend, feed bags used and the mortality trend |
| Weeks 6 and 7 | Birds reach market weight and the sale is planned | Live weights, sale timing and price expectation |
| Week 8 | Final sale, clean-out and payout | Final figures, accounts and payout date |
Week 0: the day the chicks go in
The chicks arrive as day-olds, and the hatchery has already vaccinated them. Marek's disease is covered at day 0, and Newcastle or Gumboro is often added by batch. The chicks come from our hatchery in Kasoa, and we deliver to all 16 regions, so placement depends on a planned trip and a house ready to receive them. That readiness is the farm's job, but it is the first thing you should hear about in the report.
From your side, week 0 is the week your agreement must be complete. The written profit-share agreement is signed before placement. It names the capital, what it pays for, how reports will arrive and how money will come back to you. If any of that is still open on the day the chicks go in, you are investing on trust, and the agreement exists so that you do not have to.
Your first report comes on the next Thursday. It should carry a photo of the flock, the average weight, the feed used and the number of birds lost. For a healthy first week the losses line should be short, and the photo should show birds that are active and spread through the brooding area rather than crowded into one corner.
Ask one question at this stage and keep the answer: when is the first report due, and who will send it if the usual person is away? A batch that depends on one named contact is fragile, and it is better to know the fallback on day one than to discover it in week three.
Weeks 1 and 2: heat, water and early losses
The first fortnight is when the house works hardest and when the most expensive mistakes are made. Chicks need steady warmth, clean water and feed they can find easily. Too cold and they huddle, too hot and they pant and spread out. Litter that gets wet causes its own trouble. The work is repetitive and unglamorous, and it is where good teams separate themselves from average ones.
Early losses are the ones to watch most closely. They often point back to the chicks, the heat or the house rather than to the feed or the market. A small loss in the first week is common. A pattern that keeps repeating in the report is a question for the farm, asked in writing, with a request for the explanation and the steps being taken.
Brooding is also where the harmattan shows up if your batch is placed in the dry season. Dust, cool nights and dry air all push up the energy and bedding the house needs. A report that shows the house working harder than usual is not, by itself, a bad report. It is a report that explains why the cost line is moving, and you should expect the explanation to be given plainly.
Weights in these two weeks are small, and the percentage changes look dramatic. Do not read too much into a single week's movement. Look for a steady pattern, and ask whether the farm's expected weight for the day matches what the report shows.
Weeks 3 to 5: feed does most of the work
From the third week the birds start eating in earnest, and the feed line climbs with them. By the time a batch is ready for market, each bird has eaten about 4.2 kg of feed. Feed is more than half of the total cost, so this is the stage where the budget is either holding or drifting. The bags are counted in every report. Check whether the bag count matches the plan for the weight you are seeing.
The weights should be climbing in a steady line. A flock that slows sharply in weeks three to five is telling you something about the feed, the health of the birds or the house, and the farm should be able to say which. Ask for the weight trend, not just the latest number. One heavy week and one light week mean less than a clear pattern across three reports.
Feed price is the other thing to watch. On a 1,000-bird batch the 84 bags cost GH₵33,600 to GH₵34,440 at GAPFA member prices, or GH₵37,884 to GH₵39,648 at the De Heus list price. The gap is roughly GH₵3,400 to GH₵6,000 across the batch. If the feed price has moved since the agreement was signed, you should know how that movement is handled before it shows up in the accounts.
Watch a mortality line that keeps climbing
A well-managed batch loses 3 to 5 per cent of its birds. Poor management or disease can push losses to 10 to 20 per cent, and at the top of that range the cycle's profit can disappear. A single bad Thursday does not end a batch. Three reports in a row with the losses line rising, and no clear explanation, is the point to ask for a visit, a written diagnosis and a plan. Do not wait for the final sale to find out.
Use this stage to test your own understanding. Before the next report arrives, write down what you expect the weight, feed and losses to show. When the report comes in, compare it with your note. The gap between your expectation and the farm's numbers is where the useful questions come from.
Weeks 6 and 7: the sale window
A broiler reaches market readiness at six to seven weeks, at about 2.3 to 2.55 kg live. This is the point where the batch stops being a set of costs and becomes a sale. The price you can expect is the biggest single variable in the cycle. In a quiet month a live bird typically sells for around GH₵75 to GH₵80. Around Christmas, Easter and Eid the price moves past GH₵100.
That difference explains why the calendar matters so much. A batch timed to reach market in the run-up to a festive season has a different expected outcome from one that reaches market in a flat month, even with identical birds and feed. Placement timing is therefore part of the investment decision, not an afterthought. Our guide to the Christmas broiler market in Ghana covers how the peak builds through the year.
See the flock before it sells
Nothing in a report replaces seeing the birds with your own eyes. The farm is open for visits Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm, and a partner who has walked through the house in weeks six or seven knows far more about the sale than one who has only read the numbers. If you are abroad, ask about the live video walk-through. The batch plan and the calculator are on the partner page.
In the final week before the sale, the report should give you the latest weights, the sale timing and the price the farm expects. Ask whether the sale date is fixed or moving, and why. A batch sold a week early or late can change the result, and you should know the reason for any change before the birds leave the house.
Week 8: clean-out and payout
When the birds are gone the work is not finished. The house has to be cleaned out and readied for the next batch, and that takes time. The full cycle from placement to payout, including clean-out, runs about eight weeks. Payout comes a few days after the final sale, by bank or MoMo, with capital returned first and profit split as the agreement sets out.
The final report should show the accounts for the whole batch: the chicks, the feed bags used, the other costs, the losses, the sale figures and the amount being paid out. Read the accounts against the agreement, not against your memory of what was said on the phone. If a number is missing, ask for it. A complete final report is the strongest sign that the farm treats the partnership as a partnership.
A house can run five or six batches a year, so the calendar repeats quickly. That is useful, but it also means each batch deserves its own review. Look at the losses, the feed, the weights and the sale price, and decide whether the next placement should be the same size, bigger or smaller. Make that decision with the full picture in front of you, not while the next batch is already being placed.
Keeping your own batch record
The farm keeps its records, and you should keep yours. A simple notebook or spreadsheet is enough. Write down the placement date, the chick count you were told, the agreement's key terms and the date of every payment you make. Each Thursday, add the report's headline figures in a single line: date, average weight, feed used and losses to date. After six or seven reports, you will have a picture of the batch that you built yourself, and it will be the best check you have against anything said later.
Your own record also makes questions sharper. If the weight line in your notebook shows a flat week, you can ask about that week specifically, rather than asking in general whether things are going well. Farms answer specific questions quickly, and vague ones slowly, and a record is what turns a vague worry into a specific question.
Keep the record with the agreement and any messages about the batch, in one place. When the final accounts arrive, you will be able to set them against the reports and the terms without reconstructing the whole cycle from memory. Partners who do this tend to read the final figures calmly. Partners who do not often spend the payout week trying to remember what was agreed.
If you are working from abroad, a shared folder with the reports and a dated log of your transfers covers most of it. Share the folder with a trusted person at home, so that someone in Ghana can check a figure if you cannot. That is not a sign of doubt. It is ordinary good practice for anyone funding work they cannot see every day.
Reading the calendar as an investor
A broiler batch is easier to judge once you know its shape. Placement, a fortnight of heat and early losses, three weeks of feeding and growth, a sale timed to the market and a clean-out that leads into the next cycle. Each stage has its own report line and its own questions, and most problems show up in the numbers well before they show up in the sale.
Keep the Thursday report as your main tool. Read it against the stage you are in, not against the total. Ask for a written explanation whenever a line moves in a way you did not expect, and keep your own record of dates, payments and the agreement. Your part is to be a steady, informed partner, and the calendar is what makes that possible.
Start a batch on the partner page
For the contract side of the model, read how contract broiler farming works in Ghana.
