World's oldest chicken, Peanut, passes away in owner's arms on Christmas Day

CHELSEA, Mich. (TND) — The world's oldest chicken, and probably most spoiled, passed away at age 21 in her owner's arms on Christmas Day.

Peanut's owner said they bonded after she peeled her out of an egg when her mother abandoned her, according to Guinness World Records.

“Peanut was a close family member, and I’m grieving her loss,” Marsi Darwin wrote in her blog announcing her hen's passing.

She added that she is grateful Peanut passed away peacefully in her sleep, wrapped in a blanket.

“I could feel her little head resting on my shoulder as she had done for years, and around 5 a.m. her neck relaxed into mine, and I knew she had died peacefully in her sleep, her final gift to me,” she wrote.

Darwin said her hen spent the first two years of her life inside a parrot cage in her dining room before joining the rest of the flock.

Over the years, Peanut hatched multiple nests of eggs providing many grandchildren and great-grandchildren who currently live in Marsi's coop.

As the years went by and Peanut entered old age, she was moved back inside the house where Darwin said highlights of her life included being filmed by reporters during her time as world record holder.

The "incredible little bird," as Darwin calls her, will be missed but she knows brighter days are ahead.