Baffoni’s Poultry Farm By Jenn Lombari When a local family business has a long history and reputation for having a quality product and excellent customer service, it’s no surprise that the community would come together to help them out when tragedy strikes; Eighty five years to be exact. Back in April of 2021, Baffoni’s Poultry Farm started their morning off with a fire in one of the coops that tragically killed about 3000 chickens. I caught up with Adam Baffoni and he told me of the incredible outreach from customers and neighbors and how they plan to move forward. After the loss of 3000 chickens in a devastating structure fire, how did Baffoni’s move forward to keep business going? What was it like that day and the weeks after? To be honest, the only reason we can really move forward after something like this is because of how long we have been here and how well established we are in the local community. By the time we all made it to the farm that morning to see what was going on, everyone was already getting texts and phone calls, and that didn’t stop all day. The phone in the store didn’t really stop ringing with friends, family, and other businesses and patrons asking if everyone was alright and what they could do to help. Having that kind of support makes moving forward from something like this possible, and we had a lot of regulars and new customers come out to the store that week to support us, which is always a huge help.
Are you rebuilding already? We are taking a bit of time to decide exactly what we want to do. The coop that caught fire had been built in the 50’s and a lot of things have changed in agriculture since then, so instead of rushing to rebuild the same thing that was there, we are considering some other options as well. Did you find out what caused the fire? Not exactly. It likely could have been caused by one of the heaters we use in the coops, but it’s also possible that it was electrical. The building is old, and so is much of the wiring. Were those chickens for eggs or meat? They were for meat, and just about fully grown. It’s really sad to have lost so many animals, but we’re grateful that there weren’t more birds. That coop has 2 stories and the 2nd story was empty. If it had happened just a couple of days later, we would have lost a new flock of baby chicks too.
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