Chicks get luxury home in fancy NYC building

updated 3:49 p.m. ET April 29, 2008

NEW YORK — A ritzy high rise is a fashionable address for some recent New York City arrivals: A batch of tiny chicks.

The superintendent of the building near United Nations headquarters said he uses a makeshift basement pen as a temporary home for mail-order critters that are destined for his upstate farm.

"I'm raising chickens because I plan to retire," the 62-year-old super, John Hyranyaz, told the New York Post.

On Monday, there were dozens chicks in the plywood-and-duct-tape pen.

But Hyranyaz denied raising animals at the building. "Everyone sees them, so they think I'm raising them," he said.

Destined for a farm
Instead, Hyranyaz said the little critters stay at his apartment only for a day or so before he transports them to his farm in Binghamton. "I got bunnies. I got chicks. I got geese. I live here. I get them all the time."

The building at 100 United Nations Plaza is home to many diplomats, and some of its two-bedroom condos are advertised at up to $1.8 million.

The Health Department told the newspaper it was not illegal to keep chickens in the city, only roosters.

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