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“I just got my third first,” 11-year-old Luke Servais said. “It’s very exciting for me to get three. I’m just so glad right now.”
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Pat Lacey, a poultry judge from Neillsville, Wis., inspects a Sussex chicken Thursday during the Jr. poultry show inside the small animal barn at the La Crosse Interstate Fair.
PETER THOMSON photo
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The St. Joe’s Ridgerunners 4-H member’s good luck continued Thursday when he was awarded another first and second place for birds he raised from chicks and bought with money earned by feeding calves.
“I just can’t believe it,” he said.
The junior poultry judging was moved inside the small animal barn Thursday afternoon when heavy rain, thunder and lightning threatened the competition.
Judge Pat Lacey of Neillsville, Wis., walked from cage to cage to sort out which birds would receive a blue, red or white ribbon.
Competitors said the barn was a tad more congested than the usual outdoor setting, but they were glad they still were able to show their birds.
It was the first time the event had been held indoors in at least 10 years, said Theresa Walchak, whose husband Robert is poultry superintendent.
Brook White, 15, chose her seven best birds to bring to the fair and bathed, clipped and trimmed them for the competition.
“It’s fun having birds,” the Bangor Striped Strivers 4-H member said. “To me, it’s just like a little pet you have.”
White began showing poultry four years ago, after her grandmother gave her chickens for Easter.
“You meet a lot of nice people at the fair and see the same people every year,” she said.
Long Coulee 4-H member Ellen Clark, 14, shows chickens and sheep but prefers poultry because, she said, it’s a lot of fun getting the birds ready for the fair.
Clark compared the ritual bathing and clipping to a person going to a spa.
“They get all pretty and pampered,” she said.
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424 or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
