With prices for top birds in the tens of thousands, is pigeon insurance a thing?
Just bought some expensive auction birds and thinking about protecting that investment.
Does anyone insure their valuable stock?
Insurance for pigeons exists but it’s complicated.
Issues:
- Proving value of a specific bird
- Determining cause of death/loss
- Premium costs often don’t make financial sense
- Many exclusions (racing losses, disease outbreaks)
Most top fanciers self-insure by:
- Breeding from valuable birds before racing them
- Spreading risk across multiple birds
- Accepting that losses are part of the sport
Insurance might make sense for a €100k+ bird that’s only used for breeding. For anything you race, probably not practical.
I investigated insurance years ago for my stock loft.
The premiums were high, exclusions were many, and claiming was difficult.
Ended up deciding the money was better spent on biosecurity - better loft, better quarantine, better health management.
Prevention beats insurance.
The real insurance is breeding.
If you have a €20,000 bird, breed from it immediately. Get youngsters on the ground.
Now if something happens to the original, you have offspring carrying those genetics. That’s worth more than any insurance payout.