The festive chicken: calendar of demand peaks in Côte d'Ivoire and backward planning
The same 3.3 kg chicken sells in two hours on 20 December and drags on for two weeks on 10 January. Nothing has changed in the chicken; everything has changed in the calendar. Whoever rears coloured chickens for festive markets does not start with the chicks: he starts with the sale date, and goes back in time, week by week, to the day he must reserve his chicks at NEXTEKCI in Agnibilékrou. This lesson gives the calendar of demand peaks in Côte d'Ivoire and the backward planning method, with the worked example of Christmas for the flock of 1,000 chickens.
14 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Free-range poultry and festive markets specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
The same 3.3 kg chicken sells in two hours on 20 December and drags on for two weeks on 10 January. Nothing has changed in the chicken; everything has changed in the calendar. Whoever rears coloured chickens for festive markets does not start with the chicks: he starts with the sale date, and goes back in time, week by week, to the day he must reserve his chicks at NEXTEKCI in Agnibilékrou. This lesson gives the calendar of demand peaks in Côte d'Ivoire and the backward planning method, with the worked example of Christmas for the flock of 1,000 chickens.
- ✓Read the annual calendar of demand peaks and troughs for coloured chicken in Côte d'Ivoire
- ✓Choose the weight and sale age that suit each festivity
- ✓Build a complete backward plan, from the sale date to the reservation of the chicks
- ✓Organise the sale in lots around the festivity and avoid the calendar traps
- Why the calendar decides before the chicken
- The calendar of peaks in Côte d'Ivoire
- Which chicken for which festivity
- Backward planning: the method and the Christmas example
- Selling in lots around the festivity, and keeping nothing afterwards
- The calendar traps
- Going further
- •Peaks in Côte d'Ivoire: Christmas and New Year (the strongest, from 15 December to 2 January), Easter, end of Ramadan, 7 August, dry-season ceremonies; troughs: back to school and 5 to 25 January; Tabaski week weak for chicken.
- •Mobile dates noted every year from the calendar, never from memory; sale 3 to 7 days before the festivity, never on the day itself.
- •Big festive chicken: 12 weeks, 13 in the hot season; meal chicken: 10 to 11 weeks; medium chicken: 8 to 9 weeks; males to families, females to maquis.
- •Christmas backward plan: sale 17-20 December, arrival 17 September (91 days), reservation between 23 July and 6 August, cleaning from 27 August, previous flock gone on 27 August.
- •Sale in three lots (heavy, medium, rest) in less than a week; 60% reserved three weeks before; nothing kept after the festivity.