Seventy years ago, a farmer beheaded a chicken in Colorado, and it refused to die. Mike, as the bird became known, survived for 18 months and became famous. But how did he live without a head for so long, asks Chris Stokel-Walker.
Lloyd Olsen and his wife Clara were killing chickens on their Fruita, Colorado, farm on September 10, 1945. Olsen would decapitate the birds, his wife would clean them up. Not like the other 40 or 50 animals that went under Olsen’s hatchet that day, though.
“They got down to the end and had one who was still alive, up and walking around,” says the couples great-grandson, Troy Waters, himself a farmer in Fruita. The chicken kicked and ran, and didnt stop.
It was left overnight in an old apple box on the farm’s screened porch. The next morning, when Lloyd Olsen woke up, he went outside to see what had happened. “The damn thing was still alive,” says Waters.
Waters heard the story as a boy, when his bedridden great-grandfather came to live in his parents house. The two had adjacent bedrooms, and the old man, often sleepless, would talk for hours.
“He took the chicken carcasses to town to sell them at the meat market,” Waters says.
“He took this rooster with him – and back then he was still using the horse and wagon quite a bit. He threw it in the wagon, took the chicken in with him and started betting people beer or something that he had a live headless chicken.”
Word spread around Fruita about the miraculous headless bird. The local paper dispatched a reporter to interview Olsen, and two weeks later a sideshow promoter called Hope Wade travelled nearly 300 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a simple proposition: take the chicken on to the sideshow circuit – they could make some money.
“Back then in the 1940s, they had a small farm and were struggling,” Waters says. “Lloyd said, What the hell – we might as well.”
First they visited Salt Lake City and the University of Utah, where the chicken was put through a battery of tests. Rumour has it that university scientists surgically removed the heads of many other chickens to see whether any would live.
It was here that Life Magazine came to marvel over the story of Miracle Mike the Headless Chicken – as he had by now been branded by Hope Wade. Then Lloyd, Clara and Mike set off on a tour of the US.
They went to California and Arizona, and Hope Wade took Mike on a tour of the south-eastern United States when the Olsens had to return to their farm to collect the harvest.
The birds travels were carefully documented by Clara in a scrapbook that is preserved in the Waterss gun safe today.
People around the country wrote letters – 40 or 50 in all – and not all positive. One compared the Olsens to Nazis, another from Alaska asked them to swap Mikes drumstick in exchange for a wooden leg. Some were addressed only to “The owners of the headless chicken in Colorado”, yet still found their way to the family farm.
After the initial tour, the Olsens took Mike the Headless Chicken to Phoenix, Arizona, where disaster struck in the spring of 1947.
For most of us, the thought of decomposing a chicken is scary. There have been some interesting cases, though, of chickens living for a while without their heads. This defies our expectations and raises some interesting scientific questions. We’ll find out how long chickens can live without their heads and dig into the biology that lets them do it in this article.
A Brief Moment or a Few Steps
Typically, when a chicken is decapitated, it loses brain function and dies within seconds or minutes from loss of blood However, there have been many reports of decapitated chickens appearing to run around or flap their wings for short periods after decapitation
People often think this means the chicken is still alive and aware. In fact, it’s because nerve impulses still firing from the spinal cord Without oxygenated blood, the brain stops functioning almost immediately. That means that any movement after being cut off is a reflex and not a sign of awareness.
These involuntary movements may last for up to 30 seconds as the remaining nerve impulses fire off. In very rare cases, a decapitated chicken may even take a few stumbling steps before collapsing. But make no mistake – the chicken is not consciously controlling its body. It is already gone.
The Brainstem’s Role in Basic Functions
What makes this short activity possible after being beheaded? The brainstem is the key. The brainstem controls basic body functions like breathing, heartbeat, and reflexes. It connects the brain to the spinal cord.
If the cut is made low enough on the neck that it leaves a substantial portion of brainstem intact, this section can temporarily continue regulating some basic functions, albeit in an uncontrolled, reflexive way. This explains the occasional steps or wing flaps – the spinal cord is just receiving the last bursts of signals from the lingering brainstem area.
However, without an oxygen supply, even these residual brainstem impulses quickly fizzle out. So while the brainstem may briefly power some crude motor functions post-decapitation, the chicken will be dead within 30 seconds in almost all cases.
Mike the Headless Chicken – An Astounding Outlier
In very rare cases, a chicken may somehow manage to live through being cut off for much longer than 30 seconds. The most well-known example of this is still Mike the Headless Chicken. In 1945, a farmer from Fruita, Colorado, named Lloyd Olsen tried to cut off the head of Mike, a five-month-old Wyandotte chicken.
However, Olsen did not completely sever the head – he accidentally left one ear and most of the brain stem intact. What ensued was astonishing – Mike survived for 18 months without his head! The brain stem was able to regulate breathing and heart function enough to keep Mike alive.
Of course, Olsen had to carefully feed and nurture the headless Mike through an eyedropper into his exposed esophagus. But with dedicated care, Mike lived and even toured as a sideshow novelty until he died by choking in a motel room.
Mike’s unbelievable story reveals that with an intact brain stem and some luck, a chicken can live headless for an extended period. But Mike remains a true outlier – most decapitated chickens do not share his fate.
Preventing Immediate Death from Blood Loss
Another key factor in brief headless chicken survival is slowing blood loss from the severed neck arteries. If bleeding can be quickly stemmed, the brain stem has a better chance of continuing to regulate heartbeat and breathing without oxygenated blood supply.
In Mike’s case, a blood clot appears to have rapidly sealed his neck wound, drastically limiting blood loss. For other temporarily surviving headless chickens, precise cutting to miss the major arteries or instant clotting saves just enough blood to keep the brain stem functioning for that crucial half minute.
The Ethical Dilemma
Mike’s strange story often leads to an ethical debate – is it acceptable for humans to intentionally decapitate a chicken in an attempt to replicate his survival? Most animal welfare advocates argue strongly that this would constitute unnecessary cruelty.
As Mike’s case was a freak accident, purposefully beheading chickens in the name of science cannot be justified. The chances of creating another long-term survivor are extremely remote. And the short-term stress for the animal is prolonged. When weighed against the limited knowledge gained, the cruelty simply outweighs the benefit.
The Takeaway
The brief activity of some decapitated chickens provides insight into animal physiology and the importance of the brain stem. But replicating the grisly experiment is ethically fraught. While their headless clucking and flapping may be disturbing, rest assured that decapitated chickens do not suffer. They swiftly leave this mortal coil behind.
What happens when a chicken’s head is chopped off?
- The brain is cut off from the rest of the body when someone is beheaded, but for a short time, the spinal cord circuits still have oxygen.
- Without input from the brain these circuits start spontaneously. Dr. Tom Smulders of Newcastle University says, “The neurons fire up, and the legs start moving.”
- This happens most of the time when the chicken is lying down, but sometimes neurons will send a motor program to run.
- “Yes, the chicken will run for a while,” Smulders says. “But not for 18 months, more just a minute or two.” ” .
Mike was fed with liquid food and water that the Olsens dropped directly into his oesophagus. Another vital bodily function they helped with was clearing mucus from his throat. They fed him with a dropper, and cleared his throat with a syringe.
The night Mike died, they were woken in their motel room by the sound of the bird choking. When they looked for the syringe they realised they had left it at the sideshow, and before they could find an alternative, Mike suffocated.
He told people for years that he sold the chicken to a guy in the sideshow business, Waters says, pausing. “It wasnt until, well, a few years before he died that he finally admitted to me one night that it died on him. He must have never wanted to own up to his mistake and let the goose that lays golden eggs fall to its death. “.
Olsen would never tell what he did with the dead bird. “Im willing to bet he got flipped out in the desert somewhere between here and Phoenix, on the side of the road, probably eaten by coyotes,” Waters says.
But by any measure Mike, bred as a fryer chicken, had a good innings. How had he been able to survive for so long?.
The fact that he didn’t bleed to death amazes Dr. Tom Smulders, who studies chickens at Newcastle University’s Center for Behaviour and Evolution. The fact that he was able to continue functioning without a head he finds easier to explain.
For a human to lose his or her head would involve an almost total loss of the brain. For a chicken, its rather different.
“Youd be amazed how little brain there is in the front of the head of a chicken,” says Smulders.
It is mostly concentrated at the back of the skull, behind the eyes, he explains.
Reports indicate that Mikes beak, face, eyes and an ear were removed with the hatchet blow. But Smulders estimates that up to 80% of his brain by mass – and almost everything that controls the chickens body, including heart rate, breathing, hunger and digestion – remained untouched.
It was suggested at the time that Mike survived the blow because part or all of the brain stem remained attached to his body. Since then science has evolved, and what was then called the brain stem has been found to be part of the brain proper.
“Most of the bird brain as we know it now would actually be considered the brain stem back then,” Smulders says.
“The names that had been given to parts of the bird brain in the late 1800s were all indicating equivalences with the mammalian brain that were in fact wrong.”
Troy Waters stands next to a statue of Mike in Fruita, which holds the Headless Chicken festival every year in May
Why those who tried to create a Mike of their own did not succeed is hard to explain. It seems the cut, in Mikes case, came in just the right place, and a timely blood clot luckily prevented him bleeding to death.
Troy Waters suspects that his great-grandfather tried to replicate his success with the hatchet a few times.
Certainly, others did. A neighbour who lived up the road would buy up any chickens for sale at an auction in nearby Grand Junction, Colorado, and stop by the family farm with a six-pack of beer for Olsen, to persuade him to explain exactly how he did it.
“I remember [him] telling me, laughing, that he got free beer every other weekend because the neighbour was sure he got filthy rich off this chicken,” Waters says.
“Filthy rich” was an opinion many held in Fruita of the Olsen family. But according to Waters, that was an exaggeration.
“He did make a little money off it,” Waters says. He bought a hay baler and two tractors, replacing his horse and mule. And also – a bit of a luxury – a 1946 Chevrolet pickup truck.
Waters once asked Lloyd Olsen if he had fun. “He said, Oh yeah, I had a chance to travel around and see parts of the country I probably otherwise wouldnt have seen. I was able to modernise and have farm equipment. But it was something he put in his past.
“He still farmed the rest of his life, scratched a living out of the dirt.”
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Can A Chicken Really Live Without A Head?
FAQ
How long can chicken run without a head?
The male Wyandotte chicken known as Mike the Headless Chicken lived for 18 months after being beheaded. He did this because most of his brain stem was still there and didn’t bleed to death due to a blood clot.
How can a chicken survive with no head?
Mike could stand, walk, and perch because the brain stem and cerebellum of a chicken go up into the neck. While the cerebellum takes care of balance and posture, and motor functions, the brain stem controls homeostatic processes that keep an animal running, such as breathing and heartbeat.
What killed my chicken no head?
If you find your chicken with its head missing, chances are the attacker is a raccoon or a bird of prey, such as a hawk.
Can chickens live without brains?
The capacity of chickens to live without parts of their brains even inspired a U. K. André Ford, a student of architecture, in 2012 to suggest that brain-dead broilers be raised in a planned way to increase factory farm output and reduce chicken suffering. (This plan did not come to fruition. ).
How long did a chicken live without a head?
The answer will leave the squeamish running around like headless chickens. Asked by: Kanika Ahuja, Winchester In the 1940s in the US, a chicken called Mike lived for 18 months without a head. He had been almost completely beheaded with an axe, but crucially the jugular vein and most of the brainstem were left intact.
How does a chicken survive without a head?
The brainstem is responsible for controlling essential functions, such as breathing and heart rate. With these critical systems still functioning, the chicken survives and can move around. Miracle Mike is a famous headless chicken who defied the odds and lived for 18 months without a head.
Can a headless chicken survive without eating?
Scientists have found that chickens have the ability to store their food in a part of their throat called the crop. With these food reserves, chickens can actually survive without eating for a few days. However, for a headless chicken, the reserves will be negligible as the body’s functioning is severely compromised.
Who has the longest surviving chicken without a head?
Mike has the record for the longest surviving chicken without a head on Guinness World Records. On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, United States, was planning to eat supper with his mother-in-law and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken.
Did a bird survive a decapitated chicken?
Around seven decades ago, a farmer decapitated his chicken in Colorado. But surprisingly, the chicken didn’t die. The miraculous bird was then called Mike, and it became pretty famous. The bird survived for 18 months, but this led scientists to wonder about its survival.