Can I come and see the birds before I send any money? It is a fair question, and it is the right one to ask before a single cedi leaves your account. At Agro Prime Ghana Limited the answer is yes. Visits run Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm, and we would rather you walked the sheds and checked our figures than took our word for them.
This guide is a checklist for that visit, arranged in the order a good visit tends to run: chicks first, then feed, then the paper trail, then the money. It is written for any farm you are considering, not only ours, so use it wherever you go. You do not need a poultry degree to make use of it. You need a notebook, some patience, and the willingness to ask the same question twice when the first answer is vague.
Begin at the gate
The walk starts before anyone shows you a shed. Notice how you are received, whether the person who greets you knows why you are there, and whether they can outline the plan for the next hour. A farm that has prepared for a visit usually has the batch records, the store keys and the right person ready. A farm that has not may still be a sound business, but you will need more of your own questions to get the same answers.
Ask about visitor rules before you walk in. Most farms ask people to wash their hands, change footwear or stay out of sheds that are not on the tour, and the reasons are sensible. Birds can carry disease between sites, and a visitor who has been on another poultry farm that morning can carry it too. Ask what the farm asks of visitors, and whether it asks the same of its own staff arriving from outside. The answer tells you how seriously the house is protected.
Start with the chicks under the brooder
Brooding is where a batch is won or lost in the first week, so the first serious stop should be the brooder area. Look at the chicks before you look at the equipment. Healthy day-old chicks spread across the heated zone, move around to find feed and water, and sound busy rather than distressed. Chicks crowding into one corner, or lying apart from the group, are asking for attention.
Next, ask about the hatchery routine. At Agro Prime, chicks are vaccinated on day zero against Marek's disease, and Newcastle and Gumboro are often added by batch. Ask the farm what it has given, when, and who wrote it down. A host who can answer that without hunting for a notebook has usually thought about it before you arrived. If you are still comparing sources, our guide to day-old chick prices in Ghana in 2026 sets out what a fair chick price looks like.
Ask about the chicks' origin as well. At our hatchery in Kasoa, the hatch takes place every Thursday at 7:00, and our average hatch rate is 98 per cent. That figure is worth testing rather than simply trusting. Ask how the hatch rate is measured, what is counted as a non-hatch, and whether the farm can show you the record for the batch you would be buying into. A farm that buys chicks from elsewhere should be just as ready to say where its chicks come from.
Then ask about the heat. Ask how the brooder is warmed, who checks it overnight, and what happens if the power drops. These are ordinary questions in poultry work, and a farm that handles them calmly will usually handle a bad night calmly too. Remember that the chicks you see are a snapshot of one moment. Ask to see the brooder again at the end of your visit, once the first rush of the day has settled.
Look at the house, not the showpiece
A clean path to a shed is pleasant, but the inside of the shed is where a batch is decided. Look at the litter. It should be dry enough that it does not cling to your shoes, and it should be turned or managed between batches rather than left to build up. Look at the drinkers and feeders. They should be in good order, with no leaks pooling beneath them and no broken parts that could leave birds without water.
Check the air as well. A strong smell of ammonia is a sign that the litter or the airflow needs attention, and the birds breathe that air all day. Ask what happens to dead birds, and where they go once they are removed. Ask how the house is cleaned between batches and how long that takes. The clean-out period is part of the cycle, not an extra, and a farm that treats it as one will plan for it honestly.
Walk the feed store like an accountant
Feed is the largest line in any batch budget. Over the cycle a broiler eats about 4.2 kg from day-old to market, and at the GAPFA member starter price a 50 kg bag runs GH₵400 to GH₵410. The De Heus list price for the same size of bag sits higher, around GH₵451 to GH₵472. A store that quotes both numbers and explains which one applies to your batch is easier to trust than one that quotes a single figure with no source.
Look at how the bags are kept. They should sit off the floor, away from direct sun and wet ground, and be stacked so the oldest bags can be used first. Ask for the stock count for the month and set it against the batch calendar. If the farm describes one story about how much feed a batch uses and the store shows another, ask which one the records support.
Feed price also changes the sums you were shown. Ask when the price in the pitch was last checked. A sheet that uses an old bag price is not wrong in principle, but it has quietly removed the number most likely to move. Check every figure in a sheet against a bag on the shelf, not against a brochure.
Ask also how the feed for your batch is bought. Some farms buy in advance, and some buy at the point of placement. If the price is set when the chicks arrive and then rises before the middle of the batch, the cost falls on the batch unless the agreement says who carries it. A sheet that is silent on this point has left its most important assumption out of view.
Ask for the last batch on paper
A good farm keeps records, and a visit is the time to see them. Ask for the weight sample, feed used and mortality from the last completed batch, week by week. Do not settle for a summary. A summary shows you what the host wants you to remember, while the weekly lines show what actually happened.
Ask how dead birds are counted and recorded, and who writes the numbers down. Ask whether the records are kept after a batch closes, and whether you can have a copy. Healthy mortality in a well-managed house usually sits around 3 to 5 per cent. A host who knows that range, and can say where their own batches landed, is giving you something concrete to compare.
Ask how the weight samples are taken as well. A fair sample is weighed in a consistent way, from birds picked across the house rather than from the healthiest-looking group near the feeder. Ask to see the scale and the sample sheet. A weight figure is only as useful as the method behind it, and a farm that can explain its sampling is one you can compare from week to week.
| Check | What a sound answer looks like | Question to ask on the day |
|---|---|---|
| Chick care in the brooder | Chicks spread out, feed and drink, none crowded in one corner | What happens when the birds crowd, and who checks them overnight? |
| Vaccination record | Products and dates written down, Marek's at day zero | Which vaccines went into the last batch, and when? |
| Feed price and stock | Current bag price with its source, stock that matches the batch calendar | Which price applies to my batch, and how is stock recorded? |
| Batch records | Weekly weight, feed and mortality on paper | Can I see the last batch week by week? |
| Hatch schedule | A named hatch date for your birds | Which Thursday hatch is my batch on? |
| Payment route | Company name matches the account name on the receipt | What is the registered name of the business I would pay? |
Treat the table as a checklist you can photograph before you go. Tick off each answer as you get it, and mark any that were vague. A vague answer is not a verdict on the farm, but it is a reason to ask again in writing after you have left.
Take the batch plan to the sheds
Before you visit, open the batch plan on our partner page and mark the three figures you most want to test: feed price, mortality and sale price. Walking the sheds with those numbers in hand turns a pleasant tour into a useful one, for you and for us. If you want to see the hatchery first, our hatchery page covers the Kasoa site.
Do not let the tour skip the sheds
Some visits are arranged so that the visitor never reaches the work. The farm offers an hour in a showroom, a slideshow of past photos and a long conversation about returns. That is a sales meeting, not a farm visit. Ask to walk the brooder, the feed store and the house before you talk about money, and say so politely if the conversation keeps drifting back to the presentation.
Notice who the host is willing to introduce you to. A farm that lets you speak with the person who feeds the birds and checks the house each morning is showing you how the business really runs. A farm that keeps every question with the sales lead is showing you something too, and it is worth noting what that is.
An empty house is a question, not an answer
If the sheds are empty on the day you visit, ask when the current batch is due to be placed, sold and cleaned out. An empty house can be a normal part of the cycle, since clean-out takes time between batches. It can also mean the farm has no current batch to show you. Get the dates in writing either way.
After you leave the farm
Write up the visit that evening while the details are fresh. Note what you saw, what you were told, and which answers came with dates, counts, bag prices or names. Specific answers are the ones to trust. Vague ones are worth raising again in writing before any payment is made.
Then compare your notes with any figures you were sent. If the batch only works when mortality stays low and the sale price holds at festive levels, you now know that, and you can decide whether that level of risk suits you. A sound offer should survive a look at the quiet months, and a sound partner will want you to look at them.
If you can, bring a second person to the visit. Someone who knows poultry, or who has no stake in the deal, will ask questions you would not think of and will notice the answers you let pass. Two notebooks are better than one, and the comparison afterwards is worth the extra effort.
Money comes last, not first. Ask where your payment will go and under what name, check that the company name on the receipt matches, and do not transfer until the written agreement says what you were told. Investors abroad can ask for a live video walk-through of the sheds and the feed store, which is a practical stand-in for a visit when travel is not possible. Questions can go to support@agroprimeghana.com, or to the partnership WhatsApp line on +49 151 68495881, which works in English and German.
Plan your visit from the partner page
Before you book a day, it is worth reading how the hatchery partnership model is set up, so the questions you bring are the right ones.
