Published: August 06, 2008 07:31 am      

Poultry exhibits to return to State Fair

Ever wonder why some chickens lay white eggs and others drop brown ones?

That’s just one of nature’s wonders, and folks pouring into the Department of Agriculture’s poultry exhibit can get a live explanation of that quirk at the State Fair of West Virginia.

Now that the avian flu scare has subsided, at least for now, the popular exhibit is back on.

“Everything will be back to normal there in the building,” Christina Richmond, poultry and environmental coordinator for the department, promised Tuesday, as she arrived in Fairlea to prepare the exhibit for the fair, which begins Friday.

Last summer, Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass pulled the curtain down on live birds after an outbreak of avian flu in Shenandoah County, Va., a mere 10 miles from the West Virginia border — far too close to risk sending birds into the fair grounds.

Although humans cannot contract the disorder, it is possible for them to act as a host and carry it with them.

“We’re delighted that we have had no major diseases because those folks were hit hard enough economically up there,” the commissioner said.

“They came out of the winter months with a high fuel bill. They are still trying to deal with that. Liquid petroleum gas went up almost $1 a gallon.”

While the avian flu appears to have vanished, Douglass said his department continues to pay close attention to the Eastern Panhandle’s poultry industry for any sign of the disorder.

“Fortunately, we have not found anything,” he said.

And that, the commissioner emphasized, is significant, considering the type of season it has been, one that is conducive to the spread of viruses.

“Fortunately, the growers are practicing good sanitation procedures. No one is welcome on poultry farms any more. There is just no traffic. If you go in, you’re sanitized in and sanitized out.”

Douglass and his staff maintain a high profile at the State Fair each year, not only with the crowd-pleasing poultry exhibit, but with its regional laboratory that keeps tabs on all domestic animals, and performs water quality testing in the region.

“We’re going to have live ducks, and turkeys, and the hens will be hatching their eggs,” Richmond said.

“We’re going to have some different heritage birds back. We’re going to have some nice displays coming and will be doing the sampling and things like that. And, we’ll be having the coloring contests this year.”

If you’re curious about those different colored eggs, it is really no big mystery.

“Chickens with white ears lay white eggs and chickens with red ears lay brown eggs,” she said.

“It’s just a genetic trait. That’s something that people are always surprised by.”

Richmond plans to provide a visual aid for the unconvinced.

“One thing we want to do that will be a little different is that I’m going to have some birds that lay different colored eggs, and people can see them side by side,” she added.