In a neighborhood not far from downtown Portland, there’s a teenager who lives with two cats and a Great Dane. She likes jazz, taking naps and … pecking at kitchen scraps.
Her name is Gertie, and she’s a chicken.
At age 15, the Guinness Book of World Records recently declared her the world’s oldest chicken.
You won’t find Gertie in a backyard coop these days. She now lives — befitting of her age and status — in a converted dog crate in Frank Turek’s living room.
“She makes these little peeping sounds,” Turek said. “Gertie!” he said, as she chirped in response.
Gertie is a bantam, about half the size of a regular hen, with striking pumpkin-colored feathers outlined in black. She began her life as a backyard bird in Turek’s first flock. Although she was a different breed than the other chickens, Turek said, it didn’t take long for Gertie to stand out in other ways.
“I think just kind of her outgoing nature,” Turek said. “The way that she was like the alpha chicken. She had more personality.”
Gertie isn’t intimidated by humans, he said. She’s lived within four different flocks and even learned to crow like a rooster to keep her spot at the top of the pecking order.
But as Gertie aged, she started to lose her sight. The other hens sensed she was vulnerable and attacked her a couple times, Turek said. Then, on Christmas Day in 2024, “I heard this ruckus out in the coop,” Turek said. “And I went back and her head was all bloody. It was really horrifying. They nearly killed her.”
After that, Turek decided to keep Gertie in the house.
“It’s actually more convenient to have her inside,” he said. “Because she was blind [and] every night, they get up on the perch, and she couldn’t. So every night, I would have to go out and put her up on the perch.”
Gertie’s path to fame started last fall, after Turek posted her photo to an online chicken enthusiast group. Someone commented that at 15, her age surpassed the world’s oldest chicken at the time.
Turek set out to prove it.
Armed with his original email from when he bought her, and lots of time-stamped photos and videos, he convinced the Guinness Book of World Records, which earlier this month declared Gertie the world’s oldest chicken.
“It just feels kind of satisfying to know that, because she’s such a sweet, sweet animal and to know that she has that accolade,” Turek said.
The average lifespan for backyard chickens is typically three or four years. At 15, Gertie still has plenty of interest in life. She just learned to hop up onto a perch again.
And she perks up when she hears jazz music.
When Turek plays sax by the great Charlie Parker, Gertie tilts her head and tucks one of her legs up into her feathers.
“I’m not sure what that means,” Turek said as he chuckles. “Turn up the volume?”
Turek will turn up the volume this July when Gertie turns 16. He plans to throw her a party. He’ll put some lights on her cage, invite a few friends over and play jazz.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
