Sell by the kilo, not by the head

Your biggest chicken and your smallest, the buyer has just paid the same price for them.

By the head, a chicken is worth a chicken. But in the same batch, the weights are never equal.

In February, the sector set its official farm gate price for one kilo seven of live weight. The price is therefore considered by weight.

On the ground, however, the chicken is most often sold by the head, without a scale.

Take two chickens from the same batch. One weighs one kilo eight, the other two kilos two. By the head, they go for the same price.

Your big chicken weighs half a kilo more than the official price weight. Sold by the head, you give away that half a kilo.

And that half a kilo does not fall from the sky. It is your feed that has made it, bag after bag.

Selling by the head means offering the kilos of the bigger ones. And the buyer knows very well how to choose them first.

Me, before discussing a price, I want a weight. Get out the scale, and hang a bucket underneath.

The day before the sale, weigh at least thirty, one by one, and note each weight in the record book.

Add them up, divide by the number of chickens weighed. There you are in front of the buyer with your average weight.

Then, it is you who sorts, not the buyer. Make lots by weight, the big ones, the medium ones, the small ones.

Each lot is discussed at its weight. The big ones are weighed in front of the buyer. The small ones go separately, without affecting the price of the others.

When you have sorted, the buyer no longer picks from the pile. He pays each lot for what it really weighs.

Then there is the price read on the internet. Per kilo, it seems much higher than yours.

That price is often a market report from the city. That of the housewife, after the wholesaler and the retailer.

In Abidjan, in July two thousand twenty-six, the kilo in the city was worth more than double the farm gate kilo.

I read online a calculation for five hundred chickens, made at the housewife's price. That profit will never reach your pocket.

Your price is the live kilo that comes out of the farm. Note it at each sale, with the average weight of the day.

The scale before the price, the lots before the truck. And the discussion is done by live kilo.

And at your place, do buyers agree to pay by the kilo? Or is everything still discussed by the head?

Weigh ten at random, send the ten weights on WhatsApp to 05 44 83 27 79, for information. The flock record book is free.

Your chicks can be ordered at 07 07 72 78 67. Subscribe. The next step is the cost price of a chicken.

Our chicks are sorted in our hatchery, in Agnibilékrou. With Nextekci, every customer is a satisfied poultry farmer.