Peanut, a chicken from a no-kill farm in Michigan, is the current Guinness Record holder for the ‘world’s oldest chicken’, at 21 years, 156 days, and counting.
Chickens have an average life expectancy of five to eight years. On January 28, 2023, she was officially crowned the world’s oldest chicken by Guinness World Records, at the age of 20 years and 272 days.
She has turned 21 and is chasing the title of oldest chicken in recorded history. But the craziest thing about Peanut is that she almost never existed. 21 years ago, her owner was getting ready to throw a batch of rotten-looking eggs a hen had abandoned into an alligator pond when she heard a faint chirp from one of them.
I heard a second chirp, and I realized that the chick was alive and didn’t seem to have an egg tooth to get out of its shell
Marsi Parker Darwin recalled
Darwin said that she was urged to apply for a Guinness Record by a friend who is also a chicken enthusiast. He knew about a chicken named Matilda who had previously held the record at age 14, only to die a couple of years later.
Peanut is now well on her way to challenging the title of oldest chicken in recorded history. At about 21 years and a half, she is pretty close to beating the record set by Muffy, who was 23 years and 152 days old when she died back in 2011.
[Source: ODDITY CENTRAL]
