Biosecurity and NPIP certification vs being a normal New England farmer

I grew up in a farming community and much of my childhood was on a farm. My mom also had a mini farm when I was a teen and I worked on farms from teen to twenties. I also raised finches and button quail for years

Back into chickens now 30 years later and the goal is to be NPIP certified so I can legally sell birds, hatching eggs etc in and out of state

However the more I read about "biosecurity" the more I think maybe I am just not cut out for NPIP certification

Here's an article aimed at just regular backyard keepers http://www.grit.com/animals/backyard-biosecurity.aspx

I understand the safety premise and I understand needing to have your flock and livestock tested and inspected if you will be selling especially across state lines, but the rest is just over the top. People around here wear their stock work boots to town, to the feed store, to the grocery store and post office. They do not have a foot bath (THAT will get you laughed at good here), they don't have special stock yard boots that go no where else, they don't quiz visitors about if they own chickens or cage birds, they don't keep hand sanitizer next to the coop to use often

My husband works on a beef farm. They also have chickens. The boots he works in 12 hours a day are the same boots he wears out in the woods and fields. My neighbors have chickens and livestock as do a whole lots of people in town. Wild Birds fly from farm to farm scavenging fields and manure piles.

We have wild geese, turkeys and grouse in the field where the chicken tractors will be all the time. Boots and hand sanitizer on the coop are the least issue

Maybe I need to just scale back my plan from a business plan to selling a dozen or two eggs a week at roadside. Because there is absolutely no way I am ever going to be able to maintain that level of "biosecurity" here

It is disappointing. I have had a talk with the state inspector and she says I'll be fine but.... I wonder.

Lifetime farm girl too. We used to have a grade A dairy farm so I'm familiar with the pain of inspections and needing to comply with rules. I would agree with you about not wanting that degree of control and intrusion in my business, nor having to set up my operation where chickens being outside is a problem because of biosecurity. It's necessary to me as a buyer though because I've purchased swap meet birds that have been sick, now I only buy fresh chicks from my favorite hatchery.

Eggs selling can be a good business and perhaps selling hatching eggs is another option. We have all those critters running amok around here too, not sure how I would let them all know that I need for them to stop coming around, or how to get my husband to sanitize his boots when he comes home.

our state rules say to sell hatching eggs, birds or chicks you EITHER have to be NPIP OR have a livestock dealer license and every bird tested before sale which means 5 months old

Now lots of people don't do either but it is illegal especially if selling across state lines. and if anyone will get caught it will be me LOL

The whole point of buying $$ purebred stock was to sell fresh eggs, hatching eggs, chicks and started birds

If I just wanted eggs sales I could have had a whole flock for free or under $50 sigh

and I do NOT mind the inspections and testing part. I understand the need for that. It is all the rest that is "too much" for me to even contemplate. separate boots, foot baths, hand sanitizer, no one near the birds, husband have to shower and change when he first gets home from work farm and those clothes boots never in the field or near birds etc... Though the state tester said they are aware of the wild poultry thing and that is not a problem for them as long as they do not mingle

Well that stinks too. It sounds too labor intensive for me. You have to really want it. That's part of why we got out of farming.

plenty sell without either. Many buy/sell across state lines with neither. (cannot buy from non NPIP once NPIP) but it is not legal and the state could destroy them if intercepted and quarantine your flock

I'll talk to the inspector about it again. can't do anything til the chicks are 5 months old anyhow I'm just disheartened

I like following the rules, I can't live with the idea of what if I got caught. I guess maybe it depends on how much selling you do too, does it matter if you're considered a business as opposed to doing it as a hobby? Sometimes those rules are different.

any one any state in the US if you sell across state lines you have to have either a livestock dealer license or NPIP. That was why I want to get it. Like you I can't bear the thought of what happens to my birds if I get caught selling or buying across state lines without it BUT many do

As to selling in state. if you sell a handful of chicks or birds (IN state private sale) a year you can be a hobby. But anything more than that and ANY hatching eggs you also must have NPIP or livestock dealer lic

First as far as NPIP, talk to that inspector again. Each state is different, I have no idea how New Hampshire is set up. In Arkansas it’s not that hard to go to a class and become an NPIP certified inspector so you can test your own birds. There are rules but it’s not that oppressive. You can’t bring in birds from an untested flock and your flock has to be tested on a schedule. There is a bit more but really not that much.

As for that Grit article, the big commercial operations do take biosecurity extremely seriously. Millions of dollars and the livelihood of many employees is at stake. But you will be hard-pressed to find people that go to that extreme on this forum. There is a whole lot of difference in what might possibly happen versus what is guaranteed to happen. There are a whole lot of articles in homesteading or let’s call them self-help magazines that I just don’t believe the people that wrote them have a lot of practical experience. I do get a lot of good stuff from some of those articles but I really don’t think some are based in reality. I did not read that article in great detail, just skimmed it. The theory is there but a lot of times theory and reality are different things.

Yeah she said it was easy and free for me to GET NPIP not a problem at all. BOTH testing and inspection are free right now because NH has a grant
and the only buying from NPIP I understand
and isolating new birds I get that

It is all the biosecurity stuff- sep boots, clothes changes, foot baths,, no people near coops if they own any birds indoors, no dogs or other animals near the coops or out etc........... That is just beyond my brain

We live pretty rustic. we cut deer up on the kitchen table after hanging them in the front yard. In fact have a deer skull on the picnic table right now that still has some fur and smells a little LOL and the chicks are currently in a pen in my bedroom/office and the incubator in the same room as the dog crates and dog food