Baseball flap: Tim Byrdak of the new York Mets, with members of the Farm Sanctuary, holds a chicken named Litte Jerry Seinfeld. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE new York Mets' good-luck clubhouse chicken has been sent down to the farm after the team lost to the Yankees at the weekend.

The brassy bird – dubbed "little Jerry Seinfeld" after a cockfighting rooster which was once featured on "Seinfeld" – was handed over at Citi Field on Sunday to a representative from an animal sanctuary by zany Mets reliever Tim Byrdak, who bought the fowl as a prank on Saturday.

"little Jerry found himself a new home," the left-hander said before the bird was given to the Farm Sanctuary of Watkins Glen, the new York Post reported.

"He avoids the fryer and the oven and everything else you can cook a chicken with."

Byrdak then exclaimed, "He just pooped on me!" as he carried the bandana-wearing bird past a media throng outside the clubhouse before the Mets’ 6-5 loss to the Bombers.

Byrdak noted that the Mets seem to have brought the chicken more luck than the bird brought the team, which lost to the Yankees twice after Jerry arrived at Citi Field.

"just think, you could have ended up on someone’s dinner table," Byrdak told Jerry.

He then cried, "Easy, Jerry!" when the camera-shy fowl got frisky and did some wing-flapping.

Byrdak had a pal buy the $8 chicken from a poultry shop in new York City’s Chinatown as a good-luck prank after his bullpen mate Frank Francisco called the Yankees "chickens" on the eve of the weekend’s Subway Series.

"Put it on the front page: not bad for a bunch of chickens," Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher said after Sunday night’s Bomber victory.

"It’s karma – you just don’t do that [call us chickens]. not to a team like us."

Jerry had enjoyed a roost in the Mets’ clubhouse, dining on oatmeal, berries and water.

An unlucky kitchen staffer even got to clean up after Jerry had an accident on the carpet.