NEW pens in the poultry pavilion certainly won’t ruffle any feathers when they’re filled out during the Casterton P&A Society Show, next month.

The metal pens replace the wooden boxes which have housed prize birds for many years before and the show society's Jeff Black said the pens were updated to fit the existing standard for pen sizes.

“The old pens go back to the original showgrounds and a lot of the openings were too small – the birds have gotten bigger,” he said.

A total 206 pens are lined up alongside the walls and middle of the pavilion, leaving more than enough room for what Mr Black said he hoped were at least 150 birds entered.

They’re not the only upgrade to the pavilion, with the old floor of dirt and rocks replaced with a layer of concrete.

“On a hot day, (the old floor) got very dusty; when there was a flood, it was a mess we had to clean out,” Mr Black said.

“If it ever floods again, we can just hose the floor out.

“The other idea is, the pens in the middle, we’re going to eventually get them onto wheels so we can actually turn and push them against the back wall and we can use this as more of a storage area for other things.”

The show’s poultry section has previously drawn entrants from as far as Mount Gambier, Warrnambool and Horsham.

There are 60 different classes of waterfowl and bantam and standard chickens which can be entered, with the major prize for the champion bird in show.

Sections are also available for the young ones to bring their prize birds in.

And while a collection of chooks and ducks may sound ‘poultry’, the section has not been without its excitements and controversies.

‘Duck-gate’ immediately sprang to mind for Mr Black – when one man could not find the duck he had entered in a previous show and it was eventually found in the possession of another man who claimed to have mistaken it for his own.

Entries for the poultry section officially close on Wednesday, 9 November – more details can be found by visiting the Casterton P&A website.