Hen From USA Was Chosen By Guinness World Record As The World's Oldest Chicken

As of March 1, 2023, Peanut, who was born in the spring of 2002, will be at least 20 years and 304 days old. She is a bantam breed chicken, namely a Belgian d'Uccle/Nankin mix, that Marsi Darwin, a retired librarian, kept from birth. Although bantams are smaller than regular-sized chickens, they are generally comparable.

Dr. Julia Parker, Peanut's veterinarian, who first encountered Peanut in 2003 when she was an adult hen, has confirmed Peanut's age. The typical chicken lifespan is somewhere between 5 and 10 years, though there is a considerable range. Muffy, a Red Quill Muffed American Game who lived to be 23 years, 152 days old, was the oldest chicken ever. She lived in the United States from 1989 to 2012.

Prior to hatching, Peanut's mother departed the nest along with all of her other babies. The egg was later discovered by Marsi, who assumed it had already died and picked it up to put into her pond.

Peeled from her shell, Peanut connected with Marsi right away. For the first two years of her life, Peanut lived inside a parrot cage in Marsi's dining room since her mother would not accept the young chick. The remainder of Marsi's flock was subsequently relocated to an outside coop, where Peanut lived for a clucking very long time.

Peanut laid eggs for an extra year or two, until she was eight years old. She has raised a number of nests of eggs during her life and currently resides in Marsi's coop with her grandkids and great-grandchildren. While Lance was Peanut's "favourite rooster" when she was younger, she is now too old to reproduce.