ALTAMONT — Altamont Fair Manager Amy Anderson has an egg incubator in her office.

From the eggs inside it — if all goes well — will soon emerge chicks that will be the only live poultry on exhibit this year, since avian flu fears have brought a statewide ban on fowl at fairs. Live chickens are banned, but hatching eggs from an avian-flu-free-certified hatchery is allowed.

The eggs need to come directly from the hatchery, so Anderson drove out to Hudson to get them.

“They take 21 days to incubate,” she said, “so we won’t have any chicks at the start of the fair, but maybe by about Saturday morning.”

“Little kids love the babies,” she said.

“We all love the babies,” said veteran volunteer Pat Canaday.

Half of the poultry barn, Anderson said, will be filled with chicken cages surrounded by caution tape, with informational displays about avian flu and the effects that it is having, including higher prices for chicken and eggs, the culling deaths of millions of chickens, and the many hardships faced by farmers in western states who have had to battle, first, fires and drought and then also “kill off their own livelihood,” she said.

Kids can learn and have fun

The Poultry Barn will also house the start and finish of the Ag Awareness Trail, a kind of informational scavenger hunt for kids. Kids will come to the barn for sheets of questions, answers to which they can find posted on large, brightly colored signs throughout the fairgrounds; one question, for instance, is “What is the largest agricultural plant grown in the United States?” and the answer is “tree.” The idea behind the scavenger hunt, Canaday said, is to encourage children to visit all the different areas in the fairgrounds.

Everyone who returns to the Poultry Barn to hand in a completed sheet will receive a goody bag. All contestants will also be entered into a drawing, and at fair’s end one boy and one girl who have completed the hunt will win a tablet.

The Poultry Barn will also house an area called “Hands-on Farming.” Designed for younger kids, this will include a pretend cow that children can “milk,” a wooden tree from which kids can pick real apples, and toy chickens with wooden eggs beneath them that children can gather.

Another thing Anderson is excited about is Kids’ Bucks. This is a game-show competition, she said, where kids compete tournament-style. The winner is sent into a glass booth with money swirling around inside and allowed to keep as many Kids’ Bucks as he or she can grab in one minute.

Horses will pull antique wagons, crafts will be judged

Anderson is looking forward to the horse-pulls done by the Belgian draft horses that will be in the Draft Horse Barn this year. Teams of these horses, owned by Kurt Johnson of Knox, will pull around the grounds some of the big old wagons owned by the fair that have not been taken out in years, Anderson said.

These include a “big old water truck” on wagon wheels as well as a fire truck, also on wagon wheels, “that they’re actually going to put firemen on and pull around the fairgrounds.” She said this would be an opportunity to show people what these wagons were made for and just how far our vehicles have come today.

New this year will be the Altamont Fair Country Store, where anyone associated with the fair, Anderson says, can apply to sell wares. “So, for instance, if you show sheep here and make wool, we will consider selling it in the country store,” she said.

Held in the Village and Carriage Museum, this will be like a juried craft show rather than like a flea market. Fair volunteers will staff the registers, and vendors themselves do not need to be present.

One admission price covers all

As in the last few years, the pricing structure will be a single price that includes not just admission, but also all exhibits and rides. Anderson and Canaday were asked if some people had complained in recent years, since there are some fairgoers who may not plan to go on any rides, for instance. They explained the reasoning behind this structure.

“There are people who want to just come in and walk around,” Anderson said, “but, while you’re walking around, you notice the circus, for instance, and say to your friends, ‘Want to go see the circus?’ That’s an entertainment venue, and it would be $45 or so to see the circus at the local arena.”

So for a single price — discounted if bought in advance — she continued, fairgoers can watch FMX races or the Disconnected K-9s, play games, and hear live music.

The fair runs from Aug. 11 to 16. Advance-sale tickets may be purchased online for $15. Children who are shorter than 36 inches are admitted for free. Tickets at the gate cost $15 on Tuesday and Wednesday, and $17, Thursday through Sunday. Wednesday is Senior and Armed Forces Day, with the elderly and veterans or active-duty military admitted for free.

Dreamland Amusement, rather than Reithoffer Shows as in past years, will bring the carnival and midway to the fair this August. Owned by Kathy and Bob DeStefano, the Dreamland midway includes a ride called Delusion, on which 76 passengers are lifted high into the air and then spun around in a circle.

Anderson said of attending the fair, “It’s a great opportunity to have bonding time as a family and enjoy something for everyone.”

Canaday added, “We’re a historical and agricultural organization, and even just to walk around, it costs a lot of money to create an environment that is worth walking around in.”

“We try to be part of the community year-round,” Anderson said. The fairgrounds are maintained and the gates open to the public all year for walkers and bikers — even the occasional horseback rider. And just this spring, she said, a group of kids from Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s 12th-grade English class filmed a movie in the Circus Museum.

“We’ve had vandals, and it’s costly,” Canaday added. “But we want to keep the gates open all year, because it’s an important resource for the community.”