# State of shock and bewilderment



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Our home owners insurance is coming up for renewal. It has been over 5 years since we have checked to see if we are still getting a fair deal & have the house insured for enough.
Went to town to get a guote from an independent agent as they will have many companies they can check with.
Answered the usall questions about the house then are there any out buildings? Yes a 24x24 honey house and a 32x40 pole barn.
Red flag arose from the agent when I said honey house.
Question; you have honey bees? Yes. Do you sell the honey? yes. Do people come to your house to buy it? No not really any except other bee keepers. Do you have a honey for sale by the road? No we have huge no tresspassing signs there.

Enter agent # 2. What if a 5 year old was to wander onto your property and got stung. Same thing if a 5 year old wandered into the horse pasture next door and got kicked by a horse. 

I asked, You do insure peoples property who have horses don't you. Yes we do but we limit the amount of horses they have. 
Can't one horse kick a 5 year old and hurt it I asked?
Well it is different than having honey bees. 
So you are telling me honey bees are more dangerous than horses and cows/ you do insure farms don't you?

Honey bees are different than other live stock and we just don't want your bussness.

So If you have honey bees you need to take a good look at your insurance policy.
You may have grounds for canceled insurance if you have honey bees and the agency does not know that.

This agent carried Auto owners, pioneer mutual and Citizens to name three I saw signs for.

 Al


----------



## Calvin Wiles (May 14, 2008)

If you are the only Beekkeeper in the area, you have problems. I'm frequently hearing from people as far a mile away that your bee stung me or my child. I ask how do they know it was my bee. The answer is "you are the only Beekkeeper around". I ask "how do you know it didn't come from a tree somehere"? They reply, 'But it looked just like one of your Bees".


----------



## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

We were just having this discussion here. We really need to check too. I guess the difference is that a bee sting can kill? Not that a horse can't either. 

We were gone to my father's funeral earlier this month. Our two neighbor boys made free with our place - left the hoses on, let our dog out - still can't find him; let the chickens into the garden - etc. Just in general were two small boys having fun. But the top of one of the beehives was askew..... The neighbor checked with their insurance and they now have all their fences posted.... we don't even have fences. 

We are going to put a 'cage' around our hives and lock it. It is about the best we think we can do. They could still disturb the bees with a stick or something, but I don't know what else we can do to help keep the neighbors safe....but that's a political topic.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

The point is the insurance agency said they didn't want our bussness and said one of their under writers would not insure due to the bees. Unless disturbed Honey bees are no more dangerous than cows,horses or any other farm animal. 
They sure didn't know what to say when I told them they may already insure people where we have bees in out yards. They also said they have never had any claims due to bee stings even thought this county is a hot bed of bee keepers. Enough to support 2 clubs with in 15 miles of each other and 4 clubs within a 40 mile radis.

I'm going to check with the Michigan bee keepers state club Monday and see what I can do about this discrimation againest bee keepers.

If I had a bunch of money I would sue the agency for discrimition too.
Make them prove that honey bees pose a greater danger than any other farm animal.
But alas we are not rich so thay skate.

 Al


----------



## Elizabeth (Jun 4, 2002)

alley, check with the American Honey Producers- I think you can get pretty reasonable insurance through them. And/or the American Beekeeping Federation. I am not a member of either group so I am not up to date on exactly what their benefits are, but I have been to several presentations at various state conventions and they always talk about benefits like insurance. 

At the least, maybe they can steer you towards an agent in your area.

I am SO thankful that we live in an area, where, so far at least, common sense prevails in SOME things, and getting farm/bee insurance has not been a problem for us.

Good luck.


----------



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I had to specifically get farm insurance to cover the outbuildings. The insurance agent was told about the bees, but he didn't bring it up as an issue. I had to switch to a different agent to cover the outbuildings. Ironically, Farmer's Insurance doesn't cover farmers.


----------



## hiswife (May 30, 2008)

most mainstream companies don't cover farmers, but that is due to the business/home mixture of the policy that is required, not that they are farmers.

Try another independent company, it sounds like the one you want to are lazy and want "easy" business, not ones they need to work for.

I am sure they'll write auto insurance for those with DUI's and multiple tickets and accidents ... I am also sure drunks and careless drivers kill 10000% more people than bees do.

good luck, keep trying and you'll find someone who will help you!


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Farm Bureau insurance has insured us for 10 years for the home and close to 20 for the cars and trucks.
But the $50.00 membership fee we get no benifit from is some thing we felt we could do with out paying during these hard economic times. So it isn't like we can't have insurance it is just we may have to keep paying that $50.00 membership fee. Tghat fee may be good for some folks but I am well over 50 and a AARP Member so we get that discount when staying at a motel/hotel. 
My mother worked for Chrysler so I get that discount when buying a new car/truck or Jeep.
Also the owner recently retired and left the company to his son. Or agent also retired so the office is full of rude young people.

 Al


----------



## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

We were all set to get a cheaper farm policy until DH mentioned his beekeeping....bingo, no policy. They were all happy before with our A+++ credit rating. You know everytime someone gets stung they say it was a bee....when usually it was a hornet or wasp. We are the only beekeepers for miles around. This hasn't come up with our independent co. and we aren't gonna rock the boat. Our bees are well back in the woods so anyone getting into them is definitely tresspassing and our property is posted. DEE


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Bristol West, Citizens, Fanknmuth, Auto Owners, Farmers and Pioneer state will not insure you if you have honey bees.
We finall got insurance again after being with out for two weeks. We have it because and agent is doing the4 property inspection and not telling the company we have honey bees.
Since we do have many out yards we could just load up all the bees and move them to those places and hide the fact we do indeed have honey bees. I could rent a storage building to put all our extra honey supers and hive bodies in too.

Personally I don't want a company to insure me that is so blind and stupid to believe all the movie and media hype of killer bees, or honey bees stings being more dangerous than a kick from a horse or a cow for that matter.

But they have all got my dander up and as soon as our state reps. get off there many month summer holiday I will be calling them about this matter, and demanding them take action againest insurance companys. I already have sent a letter to the president of the Michigan bee keepers about this problem.

 Al


----------



## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

I don't get it though. In order to prove a claim for dog bite, someone would have to prove that MY dog bit them. Isn't it the same with a bee sting? I mean, with all the bees and wasps in the wild, never mind the domesticated ones, wouldn't they have to prove it was MY bee that stung them?


----------

