Dunedin Poultry, Pigeon and Cage Bird Club president Stuart Aitken said "We had people queuing up here at 11am (the show started at 1pm) to get the pick of the bunch."
Bird judge Gordie Cadman, of Taranaki, said it was the same story all over the country.
In Hamilton, where he recently judged a show, organisers had to lock people out of the building until show time so they could get the judging done.
People travelled from as far as Christchurch to the weekend's show at the Forrester Park Dog Hall, Mr Aitken said.
Poultry suppliers had noticed the demand for laying hens had increased in the past few years, but this year the demand was huge.
"I think people are getting back to basics. It goes hand in hand with a return to gardening, too. People have a garden and now they want some chickens to run around in it. They want something pretty to look at.
"No longer are they the children's hobby. They are actually more for the adults now."
Their popularity was being fuelled by several things, including tougher economic times in which people desired to be more self-sufficient, a trend towards owning different breeds of hens, and towards more organic eating, he said.
Most of the chickens sold at the show were to people on lifestyle blocks around Dunedin, but people living in urban areas were also buying up stock.
Most people wanted three to six hens.
Roosters were unpopular because of the noise they made.
Jo Robertson, of Middlemarch, said she and her mother, Viv Robertson, kept about six chickens at home.
They wanted more and to replenish older stock, so had bought a pair of partridge wyandotte hens and a trio of pekin bantams.
"We keep them for the eggs, really.
"They taste much better than anything you'd find at the supermarket."
Hens were very friendly and were also the perfect recession pet, Mr Aitken said.
"They are very cheap to keep. You can basically feed them on your kitchen scraps and you only need a little bit of other feed on the side."
