Selling live or processed: channels, markets, restaurants, loyalty
A successful festive flock is judged on the evening of the last lot sold, not on weighing day. Selling 1,000 coloured chickens in a week, at the right weight, to the right customers, without keeping a single one into January, takes as much method as rearing them. This lesson extends the coloured chicken track and level 12 without repeating them: it deals with the festive chicken in particular, the choice between selling live or ready to cook, the preparation of the lots, and above all loyalty, what makes a family come back to you every Christmas rather than to the first seller at the market.
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.
A successful festive flock is judged on the evening of the last lot sold, not on weighing day. Selling 1,000 coloured chickens in a week, at the right weight, to the right customers, without keeping a single one into January, takes as much method as rearing them. This lesson extends the coloured chicken track and level 12 without repeating them: it deals with the festive chicken in particular, the choice between selling live or ready to cook, the preparation of the lots, and above all loyalty, what makes a family come back to you every Christmas rather than to the first seller at the market.
- ✓Choose between selling live and selling processed according to the channel, with carcass yield and the cold chain
- ✓Build the sales split of a festive flock between families, ceremonies, resellers, maquis and shops
- ✓Prepare live chickens for sale: fasting, sorting, crates, transport, scale
- ✓Measure and raise customer loyalty from one festivity to the next
- Live or processed: two products, two trades
- The channels of the festive chicken and the split
- Preparing live chickens for sale
- Processed: slaughterhouse as a service, cold, label
- Loyalty: making the customer come back, festivity after festivity
- The price: yours, never invented
- Going further
- •Live for families, ceremonies and resellers; ready to cook for maquis, shops and city customers; carcass yield of a 12-week coloured chicken: about 70 to 72%; fresh between 0 and 4 °C within 48 h, frozen at −18 °C.
- •Split of 950 Christmas chickens: families 40%, ceremonies 20%, maquis 20%, resellers 15%, private individuals 5%; no channel above 40%.
- •Preparation: fasting of 8 to 10 h without cutting the water, calm catching by the legs, three weighed and marked lots, 8 chickens of 3.3 kg per crate, transport in the cool hours, scale checked and weighing in front of the customer.
- •Loyalty = customers who came back ÷ customers of the previous festivity; aim for more than 60%; contact calendar at 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 2 days, and thanks afterwards.
- •The price is yours: cost in units × your amounts, never below cost; per bird by weight lot for families, per kilo of carcass for maquis and shops.