How long do chickens live? Backyard hens, farm chickens and the oldest on record

A backyard hen can live 6 to 8 years and the oldest on record reached 23, yet the average US meat chicken goes to market at just 47.5 days old.

A backyard or pet hen usually lives about 6 to 8 years, according to University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension, and the oldest chicken on record, a hen called Muffy, lived 23 years and 152 days. Hens lay best in their first few years. The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine says egg production drops around age three, although the bird can go on living for years after that.

Farm chickens rarely get the chance to grow old. In the United States, meat chickens (broilers) reached market at an average of 47.5 days old in 2025, according to the National Chicken Council. Commercial laying hens in the UK and Ireland are removed from their flocks at an average of 76 weeks, about a year and a half, when egg numbers and shell quality fall.

Explain it like I’m busy:

• Backyard hens: about 6 to 8 years is typical; a few pass 15, and the record is just over 23.
• Farm chickens: US meat birds are slaughtered at about 47 days and egg-laying hens at about 1.5 to 3 years, long before old age.
• In old hens, reproductive tract cancers are very common, and the more a hen ovulates, the higher the risk appears to be.

Key facts about chicken lifespan

• Backyard hens: 6 to 8 years (UW–Madison Extension); “as long as eight years” (University of Illinois veterinary college). Both are guidance figures, not measured averages.
• Egg laying: hens start at about 18 to 22 weeks old, and most backyard flocks produce eggs for 3 to 4 years (UW–Madison Extension).
• Meat chickens: 47.5 days, the 2025 average US market age, down from 112 days in 1925 (National Chicken Council).
• Commercial layers: average removal age 76 weeks in the UK and Ireland (Teagasc); UW–Madison Extension says most commercial layers are kept 2 to 3 years.
• Records: Muffy, a Red Quill Muffed American Game hen in the USA, lived 23 years 152 days (1989 to 2012, Guinness World Records). Peanut, a Michigan hen, died at no less than 21 years 238 days.
• Leading measured killers of backyard birds: Marek’s disease, a viral cancer, was the most common cause of death in all eight US states in a study of 2,687 birds sent for autopsy (Cadmus and colleagues, 2019). In city flocks surveyed by the US Department of Agriculture, owners said predators caused 44% of deaths.

Chicken lifespan at a glance

Sources: as listed in each row; full references below. Ages are rounded as given by each source. Record holders change; the “oldest living” row reflects the Guinness listing checked on 9 November 2026.

What these numbers mean: a working life, not a natural one

Most chickens never die of old age. A commercial hen is retired the way a company replaces a delivery van: when output drops below what pays, not when the engine fails. Teagasc, Ireland’s agriculture and food development authority, gives falling egg numbers and poorer shells as the main reasons flocks are replaced at about 76 weeks. The comparison has a limit: the age at which vans are replaced tells you little about how long a van can run, and the same goes for hens.

The gap is easiest to see as a fraction. A broiler’s 47.5 days is about 2% of a backyard hen’s 6 to 8 years. A layer removed at 76 weeks has lived roughly a fifth to a quarter of that span. Muffy, the record holder, lived about 180 times as long as an average US broiler.

How scientists know how long chickens live

Farm ages come from production records

The farm figures are not lifespans in the biological sense. They are management decisions, logged by industry. The National Chicken Council’s yearly table shows the average US broiler went to market at 112 days and 2.5 pounds (about 1.1 kg) in 1925. By 2025 it took 47.5 days to reach 6.63 pounds (about 3.0 kg). Time to market fell to less than half, while weight at market more than doubled.

Backyard ages are mostly guidance

We did not find a published study that followed a large group of pet hens from hatch to natural death. The 6 to 8 year figure comes from a UW–Madison Extension guide by Sandra Stuttgen, and the University of Illinois figure from a 2017 college column quoting Dr. Yvette Johnson-Walker. Both are sensible, experience-based estimates. Neither cites survival data.

What kills backyard chickens: autopsy studies

The best measured evidence is about how chickens die, not when. Kyran Cadmus and colleagues collected 2,509 autopsy reports covering 2,687 birds from diagnostic laboratories in eight US states between 2015 and 2017; 96% were chickens. The birds ranged from 4 days to 11 years old. Marek’s disease was the most common cause of death in every state, diagnosed in 582 birds (22%). Deaths from virus-caused cancers peaked in birds 3 to 6 months old. The authors also found 314 cases of ovarian adenocarcinoma and carcinomatosis, the most common cancers not caused by a virus.

An earlier review of 1,301 backyard chickens examined in Davis, California, from 2007 to 2011 found infectious disease in 60.4% of birds, with Marek’s disease the most common viral diagnosis. Among non-infectious causes, fatty liver haemorrhagic syndrome and reproductive tract adenocarcinoma led. Both studies count only birds whose owners paid for an autopsy, so they are not a random sample of all backyard chickens.

Predators show up less in lab data because a fox rarely leaves a body to submit. In the US Department of Agriculture’s 2010 survey of 425 chicken-keeping households in Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City, owners said predators caused 44.0% of chicken deaths in the previous year, not counting birds slaughtered for food. That figure is owner-reported, from four cities only.

Worked calculation: farm ages as a share of a backyard life

• Broiler: 47.5 days ÷ (6 × 365.25 days) = 2.2%; 47.5 ÷ (8 × 365.25) = 1.6%. So about 2% of a backyard hen’s typical span.
• Layer at 76 weeks: 76 × 7 = 532 days = 1.46 years. 1.46 ÷ 8 = 18%; 1.46 ÷ 6 = 24%. So roughly a fifth to a quarter.
• Muffy: 23 years 152 days = 23.42 × 365.25 = 8,553 days. 8,553 ÷ 47.5 = 180. So about 180 broiler lifetimes.

These are SciQuest calculations. They compare an average farm age with a guidance range, so treat them as orders of magnitude rather than precise ratios.

What changes the answer

Egg laying and reproductive disease. The laying hen is the only non-human animal known to develop ovarian cancer spontaneously at a high rate, according to a 2013 review by P. A. Johnson and J. R. Giles. At the University of Connecticut, T. N. Fredrickson followed 466 White Leghorn hens aged 2 to 7 years for 3.5 years. Of them, 32% developed ovarian tumours and 45% had tumours of the reproductive tract overall; malignant ovarian adenocarcinoma affected 24% of all the hens. Those tumours were uncommon in hens younger than 2. A 2014 review by A. M. Hawkridge puts the prevalence of ovarian cancer in chickens at 5 to 35%, depending on age, genetic strain, reproductive history and diet.

Ovulation appears to drive much of that risk. In a trial reported by Rodriguez, Carver and colleagues in 2013, 2,400 two-year-old White Leghorns were split into groups for two years. Restricting calories in five groups cut egg production by more than 60% and was associated with a more than 70% drop in reproductive tract cancers. That study used one commercial-type breed in a research flock, so it does not tell owners what to feed a pet hen.

Marek’s disease and vaccination. Marek’s disease is caused by a herpesvirus that produces T-cell lymphomas, a type of cancer, and can develop in chickens as young as 3 weeks, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual. Vaccines are given at hatch or to embryos on day 18 of incubation. They protect birds well against disease but do not stop the virus spreading entirely, and infected dust and feather dander carry it between birds. Cadmus and colleagues did not report the vaccination status of the birds they studied, but noted that many owners are not aware vaccination is needed.

Breed: heritage breeds and commercial hybrids. Many poultry websites say heritage breeds outlive high-production hybrids by years. We found no published study that compares their lifespans directly, so we cannot give a number. What the evidence does show is consistent with the idea: ovarian cancer rises with the number of ovulations, and a productive hen lays about one egg a day (University of Illinois). The three Guinness record holders in our table, a game breed, a Silkie bantam and Peanut, described as a bantam, are not commercial layers, but three records cannot prove a breed effect.

Predators and housing. In the USDA city survey, predators were the single largest owner-reported cause of death. Cadmus and colleagues also named a lack of protection from predators among management problems that contributed to deaths.

How a chicken’s life compares

Chickens were first domesticated from the red junglefowl subspecies Gallus gallus spadiceus, which lives today mostly in south-western China, northern Thailand and Myanmar, according to an analysis of 863 genomes by Wang and colleagues. You will often read that wild junglefowl live 10 years or more. We could not find a field study that measured it, and the AnAge ageing database lists no wild figure at all.

Among pets, a backyard hen’s 6 to 8 years sits close to a rabbit’s. Charities give pet rabbits 8 to 12 years with good care, as we explained in how long rabbits live. A horse lasts far longer, about 25 to 30 years on average; see how long horses live.

Why it matters to you

If you are thinking of keeping hens, plan for birds that live several years after they stop laying much. Egg output falls around age three, but the hen may be with you for another three to five years, sometimes longer.

The autopsy data also point to the risks owners can ask a vet about: Marek’s disease vaccination when buying chicks, predator-proof housing, and signs of reproductive disease in older hens, such as fluid swelling the abdomen (ascites), one of the signs Fredrickson used to spot hens with tumours. This article is general information, not a care guide or veterinary advice.

“But wait…” if hens can live 20 years, why do most backyard birds die so much younger?

Records show what a chicken’s body can do when everything goes right, and they come from a handful of birds. Most hens meet a predator, an infection or a reproductive tract disease long before they get near that limit. Muffy and Peanut were real outliers.

Related questions

How long do chickens lay eggs? Hens usually start at 18 to 22 weeks, and most backyard flocks produce eggs for 3 to 4 years, with egg numbers, size and shell quality falling each year (UW–Madison Extension).

How long do roosters live? We found no source with separate lifespan data for roosters. Muffy and Peanut, the two oldest on record, were hens.

Which animals live longest? The AnAge database calls the chicken “a relatively short-lived and fast ageing species”; for the other end of the scale, see the world’s longest-living animals. At the other extreme, a house fly lasts a few weeks as an adult.

In one sentence

A well-kept backyard hen usually lives about 6 to 8 years and a rare few pass 20, but farm chickens are slaughtered at weeks or months old, long before age, disease or a fox would end their lives.

Read next

• How long do rabbits live? Pet and wild rabbit lifespan compared
• The world’s longest-living animals
• How long does a horse live? Typical lifespan, ponies and the oldest horse

Sources

1. Stuttgen S. Life cycle of a laying hen. University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension (undated).
2. Beers H. Care and feeding of backyard chickens. University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, 23 April 2017.
3. National Chicken Council. U.S. broiler performance (statistics table, accessed 9 November 2026).
4. Simpson D. Extending the life of layers. Teagasc (undated).
5. Guinness World Records. World’s oldest chicken, Peanut, dies aged 21 (January 2024; includes the Muffy record) and Oldest living chicken (accessed 9 November 2026).
6. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database. Gallus gallus entry. Human Ageing Genomic Resources.
7. Cadmus KJ, Mete A, Harris M, et al. (2019). Causes of mortality in backyard poultry in eight states in the United States. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 31: 318–326. doi:10.1177/1040638719848718; full text, PMC6838705.
8. Mete A, Giannitti F, Barr B, Woods L, Anderson M (2013). Causes of mortality in backyard chickens in northern California: 2007–2011. Avian Diseases 57: 311–315. doi:10.1637/10382-092312-Case.1 (abstract).
9. USDA APHIS National Animal Health Monitoring System (2011). Characteristics of chicken flocks in four U.S. cities (Poultry 2010 study, PDF).
10. Fredrickson TN (1987). Ovarian tumors of the hen. Environmental Health Perspectives 73: 35–51. doi:10.1289/ehp.877335; full text, PMC1474556.
11. Hawkridge AM (2014). The chicken model of spontaneous ovarian cancer. Proteomics: Clinical Applications 8: 689–699. doi:10.1002/prca.201300135 (abstract).
12. Rodriguez GC, Barnes HJ, Anderson KE, et al. (2013). Evidence of a chemopreventive effect of progestin unrelated to ovulation on reproductive tract cancers in the egg-laying hen. Cancer Prevention Research 6: 1283–1292. doi:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-12-0426 (abstract).
13. Johnson PA, Giles JR (2013). The hen as a model of ovarian cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer 13: 432–436. doi:10.1038/nrc3535 (abstract).
14. Nair V. Marek’s disease in poultry. Merck Veterinary Manual (reviewed April 2024).
15. Wang M-S, Thakur M, Peng M-S, et al. (2020). 863 genomes reveal the origin and domestication of chicken. Cell Research 30: 693–701. doi:10.1038/s41422-020-0349-y (abstract).

Disclosure: This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The percentages and the “180 broiler lifetimes” figure are SciQuest calculations from the cited averages; the graphic is a SciQuest original drawn from the listed figures. Several sources were read as abstracts only, as marked. This article is general information, not veterinary advice. Spotted an error? See our corrections policy.