Ordering and receiving your chicks

A complete order

The order is placed on WhatsApp at +225 07 07 72 78 67, with four pieces of information: the type of chick, the quantity in boxes of 50, your town (or the collection point), and the date you want. An adviser confirms availability and the price of the day, then payment in advance secures your place in the schedule. For festive seasons and periods of high demand, pre-order early: places go quickly.

The minimums: 50 chicks (one box) for collection at the hatchery in Agnibilékrou, 200 chicks (four boxes) for delivery by the partner carriers. Each box contains exactly 50 chicks: counting is done by the box, not by the unit.

For technical questions (which type to choose, preparing the poultry house, a problem on arrival), the information number is +225 05 44 83 27 79. Maria, the online assistant, also answers at any time on www.nextekci.com.

The chicks’ journey

NEXTEKCI does not transport the chicks itself: professional partner carriers run on three routes from Agnibilékrou, with departures on Monday and Thursday evening and arrival on Tuesday and Friday morning. The routes: Agnibilékrou → Daoukro → Bouaké; Agnibilékrou → Bongouanou → Dimbokro → Yamoussoukro → Bouaflé → Daloa; Agnibilékrou → Abengourou → Akoupé → Adzopé → Abidjan (Yopougon). The carrier tells you their rate per box, which you pay to them directly.

The chicks are available throughout Côte d’Ivoire: if your town is not on a route, you pick them up at the arrival point of a route (crossroads, bus station, terminus), you collect them from the hatchery, or your own carrier comes to fetch them. In every case, coordination is done by WhatsApp: stay reachable on the night of departure and the morning of arrival.

During the journey, the chick lives on the reserves of its egg yolk: it can go without eating or drinking during the trip, provided it is kept cool and ventilated. It is on arrival that everything is decided: the sooner it drinks, the better it starts.

Arrival: count, observe, settle them in

• Before: house warm since the day before, drinkers filled two hours beforehand, trays filled, lights on. You saw the checklist in lesson 4.
• At the collection point: check the number of boxes and the labelling of the batch, protect the boxes from sun and wind on the way to the farm, do not stack them in a closed boot with no air.
• In the poultry house: open the boxes calmly, one by one, inside the brooder guard. Count, and immediately record on the record sheet the dead on arrival and the weak chicks set apart.
• Water first: dip the beaks of a few chicks in the drinker, the others follow. Water at room temperature, never ice-cold. Feed comes one to two hours later, on the trays.
• Then observe for two to three hours: how they spread out under the heat tells you everything (we come back to this in lesson 7).

A problem on arrival? Photos and a short video sent on WhatsApp to +225 05 44 83 27 79 allow a quick opinion. NEXTEKCI technical follow-up supports you through the 72 hours following delivery.

The classic pitfalls of a first order

• Ordering before the poultry house is ready “because the date was right”.
• Changing type at the last minute without adapting the starter feed.
• Leaving the boxes in the sun at the collection point while you look for the vehicle.
• Giving ice-cold water “to cool them down”: the chicks do not drink and get chilled.
• Not being reachable on the night of departure: the carrier cannot wait for you.