getting homeowners insurance if we sell broiler chickens

[Tlafferty502]

Hello,
Wondering if anyone has had this problem and if so, how they solved it. We bought a 12 acre farm property in Pennsylvania and we are starting a business raising broilers on the property in chicken tractors in our pasture. We are very small scale at the moment with only 3 chicken tractors and have sold 200 birds this year.
The problem is, our current insurance agent (state farm) will not insure us at all if we SELL chickens from this property. They won't insure the house or property. We are allowed to own pet chickens but if we SELL them we cant get insurance for our home/property.
We are legal in all other areas of the business but obviously need to have insurance for our home/property. We have contacted other insurance agencies and they are saying the same.... that they can not insure us if we sell the birds. Our insurance says they will insure us if we raise/sell pigs or cows (basically any other animal) but not chickens.
We have checked into farm/ranch policies and get the same answer - not eligible for coverage if we SELL chickens from this property.
This is insane to me. Why is this so hard? We can't be the only people to ever start a business raising/selling chickens.
We raise the birds from chicks, sell them while they are still alive, we have a mobile butcher come to the property who butchers and packages the birds, customers come and pick up their whole birds on butcher day or we freeze them until they can pick up (our freezers are inspected and approved for the business).
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Fishychix]

Hello,
Wondering if anyone has had this problem and if so, how they solved it. We bought a 12 acre farm property in Pennsylvania and we are starting a business raising broilers on the property in chicken tractors in our pasture. We are very small scale at the moment with only 3 chicken tractors and have sold 200 birds this year.
The problem is, our current insurance agent (state farm) will not insure us at all if we SELL chickens from this property. They won't insure the house or property. We are allowed to own pet chickens but if we SELL them we cant get insurance for our home/property.
We are legal in all other areas of the business but obviously need to have insurance for our home/property. We have contacted other insurance agencies and they are saying the same.... that they can not insure us if we sell the birds. Our insurance says they will insure us if we raise/sell pigs or cows (basically any other animal) but not chickens.
We have checked into farm/ranch policies and get the same answer - not eligible for coverage if we SELL chickens from this property.
This is insane to me. Why is this so hard? We can't be the only people to ever start a business raising/selling chickens.
We raise the birds from chicks, sell them while they are still alive, we have a mobile butcher come to the property who butchers and packages the birds, customers come and pick up their whole birds on butcher day or we freeze them until they can pick up (our freezers are inspected and approved for the business).
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Have you contacted your county extension office? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but that doesnt mean much. I imagine they would at least know why. Im sure another PAer will be able to help you.

Have you thought of posting this in the states thread or the laws and ordinances thread?

 

[DouglasB]

You can raise those birds on your property, as I understand it, you just cant sell from your property. Could you take your birds off property, say, to a farmers market and sell off property? Having buyers coming to the property making it a business sounds like the problem. Seems like you could do whatever you want with your birds off of a property they insure. I could be wrong as two left shoes, but it makes sense.

 

[Fishychix]

I just realized you’re brand new!

 

[iwltfum]

Make sure the agent understands that you will have them butchered and packaged legally and they will not be live chickens that you are selling. Other than that, I would suggest forming a legally taxable business and insuring through your business. When the home policy agent asks about the business on your land, simply explain that the business and house are separate and refer them to your business insurance agency if they want to ask about your business insurance. Forming a legitimate business would be the best way to go about this. I've found that insurance agents don't like it when you sell stuff from your property but aren't registered as a tax paying business. Another option is to not even mention the chickens for sale thing and hope they don't ask...

Another thing to note is that as a general rule, it is very difficult and expensive to insure small poultry operations. I have been through the process several years ago now and still have to deal with my insurance company's BS all the time - like yearly.

 

[featherhead007]

Hello,
Wondering if anyone has had this problem and if so, how they solved it. We bought a 12 acre farm property in Pennsylvania and we are starting a business raising broilers on the property in chicken tractors in our pasture. We are very small scale at the moment with only 3 chicken tractors and have sold 200 birds this year.
The problem is, our current insurance agent (state farm) will not insure us at all if we SELL chickens from this property. They won't insure the house or property. We are allowed to own pet chickens but if we SELL them we cant get insurance for our home/property.
We are legal in all other areas of the business but obviously need to have insurance for our home/property. We have contacted other insurance agencies and they are saying the same.... that they can not insure us if we sell the birds. Our insurance says they will insure us if we raise/sell pigs or cows (basically any other animal) but not chickens.
We have checked into farm/ranch policies and get the same answer - not eligible for coverage if we SELL chickens from this property.
This is insane to me. Why is this so hard? We can't be the only people to ever start a business raising/selling chickens.
We raise the birds from chicks, sell them while they are still alive, we have a mobile butcher come to the property who butchers and packages the birds, customers come and pick up their whole birds on butcher day or we freeze them until they can pick up (our freezers are inspected and approved for the business).
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I wonder if some "Big wig" from State Farm was pecked by a chicken, as a child!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Since it is that universal across insurance companies something is going on. I strongly suspect it has something to do with Pennsylvania state law. It is not going to be Federal, not at your level of production. I trust you've asked them why, to try to get to the root cause of the denial. Until you know why you can't do anything about it. I might call your State Farm agent and try to get to that root cause. The why is not that you are selling from your property. The why is what makes that uninsurable.

I'd also suggest you get in touch with the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner's office and ask them what is going on. They should know. Don't hesitate to call your state representative or senator, whatever you have in your state if the insurance commissioner's office gives you the run-around. Sometimes all it takes is a question from them to get people off their butt.

To me the real frustration is not knowing why. You feel helpless because you don't know what to do.

 

[Tlafferty502]

Have you contacted your county extension office? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but that doesnt mean much. I imagine they would at least know why. Im sure another PAer will be able to help you.

Have you thought of posting this in the states thread or the laws and ordinances thread?

I will contact the extension office, we have been in touch with them quite a bit for the business side of things but we haven't directly asked about the insurance information.
I will post in those threads as well, I didn't realize there was a states thread. Thank you!

 

[Tlafferty502]

You can raise those birds on your property, as I understand it, you just cant sell from your property. Could you take your birds off property, say, to a farmers market and sell off property? Having buyers coming to the property making it a business sounds like the problem. Seems like you could do whatever you want with your birds off of a property they insure. I could be wrong as two left shoes, but it makes sense.

This doesn't really work for us as per the laws we have to sell the birds while they are alive. We are not allowed to sell them after they are butchered. Although, it may be possible to sell them before butcher and deliver them afterward at a farmers market. However, that would require more than we are ready for as far as keeping the birds fresh and cold during delivery.
What we do is take a deposit for the birds a customer wants then they pay the balance on pick up day. This covers us on the "sell while alive rule".

 

[Tlafferty502]

I just realized you’re brand new!

Yes! Hoping to connect with others on this venture of ours!