Buying day-old chicks in Uganda: what to check before you pay

Why the supplier matters more than the price

A batch of chicks is the cheapest part of a poultry cycle and the part that decides everything after it. Feed will cost you many times what the birds cost. If a weak or unvaccinated batch dies in week two, you have lost the birds, the feed you already bought, the brooding fuel, and the weeks you were counting on.

That is why comparing suppliers on price per chick alone is the wrong comparison. The right comparison is price per bird that reaches point of sale or point of lay.

The four things to ask for before you pay

1. 1

   The hatch date

   Day-old means day-old. Chicks living off the yolk sac have a short window before they need feed and water, and birds that have been sitting for two or three days are not the same product. Ask for the date, not the week.

2. 2

   The batch or lot number

   This is what makes a problem traceable. If birds from one hatch develop the same symptom, a batch number lets the hatchery check what else came off that hatch. Without it, nobody can tell whether your problem is your brooder or their eggs.

3. 3

   The vaccination record

   Ask which vaccinations were given and when. Marek’s is normally given at the hatchery on day one. What comes after that is your responsibility, and you need to know what has already been done so you do not double up or leave a gap.

4. 4

   How the birds will travel

   Ask what they travel in. Ventilated boxes with internal divisions, kept upright and out of direct sun, are the standard. Loose birds in a sack or an unventilated crate will arrive stressed even over a short distance.

Questions a good hatchery will answer without hesitating

• Do you hatch these birds yourselves, or buy them in and resell them?
• What hatch date can you give me, and how firm is it?
• What was the parent stock, and how old is the flock the eggs came from?
• What is your policy if birds are dead on arrival?
• Can I collect, and what should I bring to carry them in?
• Who do I call if something looks wrong in the first week?

You are not being difficult by asking. A hatchery that raises its own birds knows all of this without checking, and the ones who resell will usually tell you honestly if you ask directly.

Booking against a hatch, not off a shelf

Day-old chicks are not stock that sits waiting. Eggs are set, they incubate for about 21 days, and the birds come off on a date. Any supplier who can always produce any quantity of any breed on demand is either running very large volumes or filling your order from somewhere else.

Plan backwards from the hatch date. Order early, get the date confirmed, and have the brooder warm before the birds arrive rather than on the morning they do.

What to have ready before the birds arrive

• A brooder heated in advance, with the litter warm rather than just the air
• Clean water available immediately, at a height every chick can reach
• Starter feed on paper or flat trays for the first days so birds find it easily
• A thermometer, and time to sit and watch how the birds distribute themselves
• Somewhere to record the hatch date, batch number and vaccinations from the box