Old Chickens

Story Here

In the spring of 2002, Marsi Darwin noticed one of her hen’s eggs hadn’t hatched and had gone cold. 

As the caretaker of the farm, she knew rotten eggs would attract unwanted animals. So she carried it to the pond to throw it away where it would become food for fish and turtles. 

But as she raised her arm to pitch the egg into the water, she thought she heard a chirp — she listened closer, and sure enough, there was a living chick inside the egg.

“I figured, well, it’s going to die anyway, so I just went ahead and started peeling it out of the egg,” she said.

Darwin had no idea the chick would go on to become a world record holder. But this spring, 21-year-old Peanut, an animal with a life expectancy of five to 10 years, was verified as the world’s oldest living chicken.

...

Now, the 21-year-old chicken comes when called, loves yogurt and likes to ride in Darwin’s coat pocket while she does her chores.

Named Peanut because she was tiny and brown, the bird emerged from her egg as a “sad, wet waddled up mess.”

...Peanut didn’t forget her time as a house chicken. She came when called and recognized her name. And after a few years, Darwin started bringing her back into the house during the winter.