I don't doubt the gubmint made it hard!
They did indeed. In our initial research we were told by the state government that as long as we had less than 1,000 birds that we could butcher and sell them on our own property as a small business with no real requirements by the state. So my Wife and I formed an LLC and went into the turkey business. We started small, just 35 birds and we got a couple dozen chicken for personnel use and eggs to sell and for personnel use also.
We sold each one of those birds (minus the couple we kept for ourselves) for $60.00 each as organic, free-range birds. The next year we got the same number and did the same thing. Then we placed our order for the 3rd year for the same number of birds. A month later we went to a seminar about small farms and poultry put on by the University of Florida's IFAS extension office and we learned that what the State had originally told us was completely false and we were operating illegally.
We looked into it and found that, if the State ever wanted to 'go after' us, they could take the house, property, and every piece of equipment we used in support of our small business (including the vehicle I was using to deliver the birds to the customers). We immediately stopped what we were doing. Further research, this time through IFAS (since the State didn't seem to know their own rules), we discovered why we were illegal. According to the rules we effectively needed to have a USDA approved slaughter facility ON OUR PROPERTY in order to be legal. This would entail at a bare minimum $50K to have such a facility built to Federal government specifications - and that's a low end estimate on my part - the real figure is very likely much higher.
That information was incredibly difficult to find. We had gone to three different licensing agencies and had called the Florida Department of Agriculture in Tallahassee when we were first doing our research and all of them gave use the same false info. Not until some university assistant professors putting on a workshop were we finally able to find out the real laws governing our enterprise, much to our amazement.
At least we found out before we had sunk any more cash into the enterprise...and at least we didn't get audited by the State. But still, it almost seemed like we were given false information on purpose so that the State could later swoop in and essentially ruin us. It was a really eye-opening experience for me and the corrupt way in which government operates.
Anyway, that was two years ago now, that we stopped selling our birds and eggs.
P.S.: Before you get to wondering, yeah I thought it was odd that they were telling me I didn't need any special permits or requirements. But I personally went in to three different licensing agencies and sat down with representatives, pointed out exactly what I was looking to do and got the same answer from all three. That's not counting the phone call to FLDoA in Tallahassee where I was told the same thing yet again. Even after all of that my Wife and I were skeptical but we figured they should know their own rules. Aside from that we even had an information packet from one of those agencies (can't remember which one it was now) that said the same thing in print. As surprised as we were we figured they must be right since they were all saying the same thing.
