At 21 years, 160 days, and counting, Peanut, a chicken from a no-kill farm in Michigan, has the title of ‘world’s oldest chicken’ alive.
Typically, chickens live between five and eight years, so it is a big deal for Peanut to have lived for over two decades and still counting.
When she attained age 20 and 272 days, she was formally crowned the world’s oldest chicken by Guinness World Records on January 28, 2023.
What is even more interesting about Peanut’s life is the fact revelation by her owner that she almost never existed. According to Marsi Parker Darwin, a native of Michigan, she was preparing to throw some rotten looking eggs 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. I gently peeled her out of the egg, and there was this wet little mess, sitting in my hand,” she is quoted to have recounted.
Marsi is reported as saying that she decided to name the chicken ‘Peanut’ because she was so small at birth and never grew more than one pound, or about one-third the size of the farm’s other hens.
However, to the surprise of herself and her husband, the brown spotted bird has lived and marked her 21st year in May 2023 while still looking healthy and active.
A friend had suggested to Marsi to apply for the Guinness World Records because he knew of a chicken called Matilda, which lived for 14 years, a record Peanut had already broken at the time.
It was, however, not easy to prove the date of birth of Peanut especially as her owners didn’t anticipate that she would ever become a record holder.
“I had some dated photos of friends and nieces and nephews who had posed for pictures with her years ago, so that was our best proof,” Marsi recalled.
In 2011, a chicken named Muffy died after living for 23 years and 152 days. Peanut’s owners’ expectation is that she would live longer to break that record.
