VIDEO: How to pick a champion chicken at the Royal Melbourne Show

ANNE BINGHAM, POULTRY LEAD: They are absolutely outstanding birds, the tails, their feathering, their colouring, plumage is excellent and surprised he’s not out the front, actually, he’s so good in my book.

He’s a Polish Frizzle, not very common. We’ve got an Orbitan Cockerel here and this is a mottled pullet and that’s one a mottled hen. You can see the mottling on their feathers and you can also see how feathered their legs and that are.  

MICHAEL HOLMES, CHAIRMAN, POULTRY SECTION:  I’m Michael Holmes, chairman of the poultry section of the Royal Melbourne Show. 

This is my 44th year of showing, exhibiting at the royals. 

We've got Austrolorps, Langshang, old English game, modern game, Indian game. There is a big number of birds and breeds and a wide range.

Each breed the judge looks at their outline, which is we call their type and then they'll look at their health, their vigour, like of the green sheen, which Joyce has got. All their colour, their comb. So there's a hundred points and you're trying to, in your mind, trying to weigh up which is closest to that a hundred point score. 

It's hard to get to a hundred points. 

The winner, the ultimate winner of the best champion bird in show is from Mount Gambier in South Australia. 

It’s the prestige of winning at a royal. 

ANNE BINGHAM:  So this is one of Linda’s pols, it’s a frizzle Polish and Linda when she comes to a show describes him as her fuzzy fireworks. 

SIENNA KENADJIAN, 2025 SECTION CHAMPION:  Hi I’m Sienna, I’m 14 years old and I started my passion for chickens from my grandmother. My nan decided to get me silky Fluffy Pants and I just love the atmosphere of the Royal Melbourne Show. 

KAREN KENADJIAN, GRANDMOTHER:  We decided to get her some six-week-old ISA Browns just backyard chickens. And she fell in love with them and really wanted to show them. We took them to an agricultural show, and they actually won Best in Show in championship. So it was quite surprising and she was sold after that. 

SIENNA KENADJIAN:  I have 11 but I have 18 altogether at home. 

I have Fluffy Pants, Huff Eggy, Sunny Boots, Olive Honey, Toffee, Bubbles, Wonka and Aloft is at home. 

DARREN KEATING, GENERAL MANAGER, AGRICULTURE:  They are amazing. Their owners I think are perhaps a bit more amazing, but these birds are beautiful and it's the fact that you're seeing such a wide array of things. 

We've got everything from tiny little fluffy ones through to gigantic turkeys, and the variety of what's going on with these birds is a reflection of the passion and the skill of their owners. So it's pretty cool.