New Beginnings Rescue and Rehoming/Supplied Hundreds of hens experience grass for the first time at Auckland animal refuge New Beginnings Rescue and Rehoming Chickens live eight years on average, but hens only productively lay eggs in the first two years of their lives. Prance is desperately seeking “forever” homes in Auckland, which are not dependent on the hens’ egg laying, where the chickens “will be loved and looked after”. She hopes the birds will be saved- just like her “miracle baby” Matilda, who was born in June weighing only 723 grams. “She was the size of a block and a half of butter,” Prance said.