Portland's Gertie Becomes World's Oldest Chicken at 16

Gertie the chicken bobs her head to bebop jazz from her living room crate in Portland, Maine, and she just became the oldest living chicken on Earth.

The Golden Sebright bantam turns 16 this July, smashing the previous Guinness World Record by over a year. Most backyard chickens live just two to three years, and experts consider five years "really old."

Frank Turek, 63, never planned to raise a record-breaking bird. He ordered Gertie as a chick in 2010 when Portland first allowed backyard chickens, and she simply outlived every other bird in his original flock.

"She's lived on through all of them," Turek said. "And she's always been the most photogenic."

The miniature hen spent years in Turek's backyard coop, laying rich, flavorful eggs for seven or eight years. But two years ago, the other chickens began attacking her as she lost her sight, so Turek moved her inside.

Now Gertie lives in a custom crate in the living room alongside two cats and a Great Dane. Turek, a jazz saxophonist and audio engineer, fills the house with music, and Gertie responds when he sings or calls her name with a cheerful "pup-pup-pup."

Sunny's Take

Noah Perlut, an ornithologist at the University of New England who studies bird survival, called Gertie's longevity "absolutely extraordinary." He keeps backyard chickens himself and has never seen anything like it.

Chickens like Gertie start laying eggs as early as possible, putting enormous strain on their tiny bodies. Perlut said thinking about the weight in eggs Gertie laid relative to her size is "astonishing."

"It goes beyond the care the bird has received," he explained. "There's so many backyard chickens that are pampered. There's some of that, there's some luck and then it has really great genes."

Turek stumbled into the record last fall after posting Gertie's photo in a Facebook group for chicken owners. Someone asked her age, and another commenter pointed out she'd beaten the existing Guinness record.

The verification process took months. Turek submitted original purchase emails proving when Gertie hatched, along with a veterinary statement confirming she was alive and well. Guinness made the record official on November 7, 2025.

When Turek shared the news on social media, fans celebrated with party suggestions and requests for Gertie merchandise. He even posted a video of himself telling Gertie about her achievement.

Turek credits her longevity to protection from predators, a good diet, and maybe all that jazz. Every day, this record-breaking bird proves that with the right care and a little luck, extraordinary things can happen.