SCHOOLBOY Arindum Saha had never held a chicken before six of them arrived at his inner-city Sydney school this week.

In 25 weeks the Year 10 student and classmates at Alexandria Community School will present three of the chooks and some of their eggs to judges at the Easter Show.

For the first time an inner-city school will take on the challenge of the Easter Show's poultry competition and give the country schools a chicken run for their money.

"It's been a long time in the making, we've been planning this for months now and we have finally got the chickens, and I actually got to name one of them," Saha said.

Saha named his chicken Dr Phil after the TV psychologist. The other chickens have been named Pelican, Frizzle, Featherstone and Streaker. The sixth chook is yet to be named.

"It is exciting. You'd think it would be easy, you just feed them but you have to take care of their shade, how hydrated they are, what kind of food they are eating," Nathan Wint Zaw, 16, said. The competition is run in 50 NSW schools.