Oldest Chicken?

[princess araucana]

I know there are MANY factors that can shorten a chickens life. And I have heard different estimates on how long a perfectly healthy chicken can live, like up to 8 - 10 years!
But I just heard someone say how all of her chickens died of "old age" at 4 years old!

How old is your oldest chicken?

(mine are only 2.5 yrs young)

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well I had to start over due to hurricanes, but the oldest I knew of, personally was my mother-in-law's 8 year old barred rock hen. She was missing a few toes and my mom tried to talk her into putting her in a soup pot, but mom-in-law said that even though she didn't lay well, she still got an egg from her once in a while and she kept her until a raccoon took her. Mom just wanted to incubate a batch of her eggs so mom-in-law could start over with fresh stock, but it didn't happen exactly like that.

 

[M To The Maxx]

Our oldest is 2 years old and still living. My friend has a 14 year old hen thaat lays 1 egg every month!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

My old man Americauna "Pedro" is 7 now & as of what I saw yesterday, still "the man!"

 

[TM Chickens]

Quote:
WOW! That's old!
Our oldest that we know the age of is two years. But their parents are at least three years older then that.

 

[leenie]

My oldest is here sitting on my lap, definitely a pet. Taco Belle is a 7+ year old banty hen. Found her so age is only how long we've had her, but she arrived laying

 

[cobrien]

Great question!

Found this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=35213

I have noticed a high degree of variability in my chickens' life spans. My speculative explanation for this is that chickens have not been selectively bred to have a long life span, as dogs, cats, horses and other pets have to some degree. Most chickens don't live past 6 months to 2 years because they are slaughtered, so I'm guessing most hatcheries may not have a desire to remove genetic traits that might reduce life expectancy from their gene pool. As long as a chicken produces meat and or eggs for 2 years, their genes may beconsidered worthy of passing on.

I welcome any feedback / critiques of this theory, because this is pure speculation!

Personally, I would love to find breeders who have selected breeding stock for a long and healthy life span, while producing as many eggs as possible over their life, because my chickens are pets and I have lost way too many at 3-4 years old. My oldest was 9 years old.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

My oldest hen was a Buff Orpington hen! I think she lived to be 13 years old! But, she would roost up in a tree and I guess something got her!

 

[BWchicken]

Wow, 14 years old? I think that's the oldest chicken I've heard of. My flock of bantams aren't even a year old yet but I've heard that bantams live longer than large fowl chickens. Does anyone know if that's really true?

 

[princess araucana]

These are great stories!