Chickens

If you would like to help support one of our precious chickens or give a unique gift to the animal lover in your life, consider Sponsorship!  You can make a difference!  Just click one of the options below and know that you are truly changing lives.

One-Time      Monthly

You will receive a certificate that includes a photo of your sponsored animal and their inspiring story! The certificate is customizable for gift giving purposes! Sponsorship certificates show your respect and compassion for farmed animals everywhere. 

About Chickens

Chickens are social animals who can recognize their friends. They are loyal to each other and have been found to be more intelligent than a three-year old human. A normal, wild hen will lay about 20 eggs per year, not the 260 eggs per year that she lays in captivity (with terrible physical results). Mother hens teach their chicks how to be chickens: how to dust their feathers to keep clean, where to find food, how to take a sunbath. She makes different sounds to alert her brood to dangers. The bonds she makes with her chicks can last a lifetime.

Compare this life to life at a factory farm for eggs, where 4-10 chickens are kept in a space the size of a filing cabinet. They cannot stretch their wings, they don’t have nests as a place to lay their eggs, and they never see sunlight. The stress associated with crowding and confinement makes the chickens peck at their neighbors and often cause bloody wounds. Farmers “debeak” chickens, cutting off the sensitive beaks and causing severe pain (similar to cutting of a human’s lips). Some of the chickens at Safe Haven have been debeaked at the factory farm they initially lived in.

We hope you get to spend some quiet time with our chickens. You will begin to notice that they have different personalities – each is a someone, not a something!

Bertha

A man found Bertha near Lehman College in the Bronx. He brought her home until he could find the proper place for her to enjoy her life. Bertha joined our family in August of 2024. Isn’t this face irresistible?!? Bertha enjoys relaxing in the sun next to her friends. She is active and people friendly – she loves when her caretakers come to visit!

Boo

This adorable hen arrived in December of 2023 along with her brother Casper and three other sweet hens. They were all part of a school egg hatching project in NYC intended to raise awareness for students who don’t have access to a farm. Once Casper started cock-a-doodle-dooing, the neighbors complained about the noise. There was a threat that Animal Control would take the chickens and euthanize them. The teachers diligently searched for a lifelong home where they could all live a happy, worry-free life.  Safe Haven to the rescue!

Leif

In December, a rooster and hen were found wandering a forest in Stony Point, NY. While the hen was easily rehomed, the rooster was in critical condition with frostbite and a sinus infection so severe it had created a hole in his face. Despite his grim prognosis and the mention of euthanasia, the rooster, now named Leif, was given a chance at life. He received intensive emergency veterinary care and rehabilitation. He was brave, resilient and he proved is a fighter.

After weeks of treatment, Leif was ready for his new forever home, and we eagerly welcomed him to Safe Haven in February. He is named after the famous explorer Leif Erikson. He is an energetic, social fellow. His enthusiasm feels like an awareness and appreciation for life and a testament to how hard he fought to survive. 

Lily

Lily is one of six sweet little white chickens who came to Safe Haven in September of 2020 after being rescued from the Kaporos ritual in Brooklyn, NY.  They were tiny and very young, weighing only about 2 lbs each.  Although they had their adult white feathers, they “peeped” quietly like baby chicks.  Born on a factory farm in huge windowless sheds holding tens of thousands of birds, they were then transported hundreds of miles to Brooklyn.  They sat in packed trucks without food or water for a day or two before the ritual started.  They were fortunate to escape slaughter in the street.  At Safe Haven, they are living a free and happy life and will never know fear or pain again.  They are growing up fast and, as you can see, Lily loves the camera.  She is quite a beauty and loves to follow her human friends around!

Paulina

This  sweet petite hen came from Belmont Racetrack. Paulina (a.k.a. Pollita) was found by a compassionate lady who worked at the racetrack. She brought her to the property to join the other chickens living there who were hatched in an incubator. There were multiple chickens free roaming the property until the New York Racing Association decided that it could be a safety hazard for the horses and for the people who worked there to have the chickens walking around. As a result, the association sent people to the racetrack to remove the chickens from the property, likely to be killed. The lady who found Paulina hid her in her office! She wanted to find her a forever home where she could live a free and happy life with other chickens. Safe Haven to the rescue! We welcomed Paulina to our family in November of 2022.