Chicks a highlight in poultry barn

It was a busy time for poultry barn superintendent Whitney Tanner-Spurr, who had to deal with some 80 birds, including chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants and 26 newborn chicks as of Saturday afternoon.

Gordon Cummings of Ronan was once again the poultry judge, as he has been for the last 17 years. Cummings did things a bit differently this year. He first conducted the poultry interviews for the two seniors and six juniors. Each of the seven girls and one boy took Cummings to his or her cage and went over another battery of questions about their bird before having them line up - seniors first, then juniors - to tell the audience about their projects. To find out if they were listening to each other's introductions, he asked the juniors to provide one fact about the neighbor contestant's bird. All contestants belong to the South Side Sparks, except Lainey Erwin, who is a Trout Creek Maverick.

Both of the seniors, Claire Wrobleski and Hannah Warnes, showed roosters. For the second consecutive year, Wrobleski, a 4-H member for eight years, took the grand championship. Warnes, a first-year poultry competitor, received the reserve championship.

In the junior competition, 12-year-old Cooper Spurr took the grand champion with her silkie rooster, followed by Makaylyn Reinhardt with the reserve championship ribbon. "They all did a wonderful job," said Cummings, who has been a judge throughout Montana for some 25 years.

Ten-year-old Kendall Spurr claimed victory over her sister by grabbing a grand championship with her meat turkey, Bob, while Cooper took the reserve honor with Fred.

Cooper took a purple with her egg project while Kendall received a blue with her egg project, as did Makaylyn Reinhardt, but Kendall won a reserve championship with her breeding project, which involved two incubators that hatched baby chicks throughout the week at the poultry barn. People witnessed several births and several visitors were able to hold the fuzzy little critters. Tanner-Spurr said the baby chicks were a big hit for 4-H kids and visitors alike.

John McNamara of the South Side Sparks received a blue ribbon for his showmanship with Hennie, but he achieved a best overall in the poultry barn with his red golden pheasants George and Martha (because he bought them in Washington). McNamara had 45 entries this year and took home a dozen purple ribbons.