It may just be the greatest airlift of escaped egg-layers ever.

Packed, prepped and finally flying high, some 1,200 rescued hens aboard a chartered cargo plane touched down in Elmira, N.Y., early Thursday morning, completing a cross-country chicken run that involved two pilots, dozens of doting animal lovers and untold numbers of grateful clucks.

The birds, just 2 years old and on their first man-powered flight, had come all the way from California, where they had lived in harsh conditions on an unidentified egg farm, in cold metal cages, with little fresh air and less leg room than your average seat in coach.

“Farmed animals are at the bottom end,” said Kimberly Sturla, the executive director of Animal Place, a farm-animal rescue operation in Grass Valley, Calif., which organized the flight. “And at the bottom end’s bottom end, chickens probably have it the worst.”

Protecting farm animals like chickens, cows and pigs has become a priority for animal-rights groups across the country; in 2008, California voters passed a proposition that would effectively outlaw the small “battery cages” in which the Elmira passengers once lived. (It takes effect in 2015.) But once rescued, finding new homes for beleaguered birds — de-beaked, atrophied and often suffering from osteoporosis — can be a challenge.