“People of all ages love to come through. It’s a bit like the animal nursery – we get them through in prams and on walking sticks,” he joked.

Mr Brown, who was washing one of his beloved chooks when The Leader spoke to him, will exhibit the best of his pekin and Indian game bantams at the weekend.

They’ll make up part of the exhibition, where anything from 50 to 60 different varieties will be on display.

“The schedule allows for up to 100, but we rarely see that many,” he said.

He said the smaller ag shows usually only catered for local and “a few out-of-town” exhibits.

“There’s not a lot of money involved in these, only our major shows, which are always in the winter, when the mature birds have full feathers. This time of the year, they’re all moulting, but we run at the ag shows, just to keep it going,” he said.

Though with the hot weather, Mr Brown said organisers could face a small headache.

“If it keeps up this way, we may have to bring out all the hoses and fans. I’ve been involved in the poultry game for a long time, and usually by this time of the year we’re going into autumn. I’ve never see it like this,” he said.

And like visitors through the doors, judges will also “come from different ends of the spectrum”, he said.

“We’ve got Uralla teenager Corey Nordstrom and long-time poultry man Greg Watson from Gunnedah doing the honours,” he said.