It turns out it’s not just politicians that can live
without brains, a chicken named Mike lived
without his entire head for 18 months!
Mike the Headless Chicken was a Wyandotte
chicken that was beheaded for the sake of
providing a chicken dinner for the mother-in-law
of a Fruita, CO farmer, on April 1945. Fortunately
for Mike (or unfortunately depending on how you
look at it) Lloyd Olsen’s axe barely missed the
jugular vein, and left an ear and the majority of
the bird’s brain stem unharmed.
Unlike other chickens that run around like, well,
chickens with their heads cut off, who are dead
ducks, or chickens as it were, Mike shook off the
blow and went about being a chicken, “pecking”
with his neck in the absence of his head and
continuing to preen himself. Olsen sat down to
wait for the bird to die, but when he made no
signs of doing so, Olsen decided to have
something different for dinner that night and took
to caring for the bird. He fed him things like milk
and water through his open esophagus using an
eyedropper. Small bits of gravel were also
dropped down his throat to help his gizzard grind
food.
Mike was initially able to walk but somewhat
unsteadily. He soon got used to the situation and
his new center of gravity. He could no longer
crow, but instead made a gurgling noise.
Farmer Olsen took Mike to the University of Utah
in Salt Lake City to be studied and the word got
out about the headless bird. He was
photographed for all of the big magazines and
papers of the day, including Time and Life, and
started a career as a sideshow attraction,
traveling with other marvels such as a two-
headed calf. He also traveled with a chicken head
in a glass jar that was passed off as his. Mike’s
real head was allegedly eaten by a cat and the
traveling head was from another chicken, pickled
to enhance Mike’s display.
At the pinnacle of his show business career, Mike
was making his owners $4,500 per month (about
$56,000 today). Admission to see the bird cost
25 cents, which added up to a lot of curious
people. Unfortunately for chickens all over the
country, Mike’s popularity lead to a string of
people trying to behead their birds in just the
same way. One of the copycat beheaded chickens
lived for eleven days, but the rest died quickly.
Like many other celebrities, Mike choked to death
in a motel room. One problem Mike often
experienced was that he would choke on his own
mucus. The Olsens kept syringes on hand for
when this happened, to suck the mucus out. But,
one night Mike was roosting with the Olsens in a
Phoenix motel room between sideshow exhibits.
The Olsen’s heard him choking in the middle of
the night but couldn’t find a syringe to save him!
A subsequent autopsy revealed that the axe had
not touched the bird’s carotid artery and Mike’s
blood had quickly clotted, saving him from
bleeding to death. Because most basic body
functions like breathing and heart-rate, as well as
most of a chicken’s reflex actions, are controlled
by the brain stem, Mike remained able to function
and otherwise healthy for 18 months after losing
his head.
Mike may be gone, but he’s far from forgotten. At
least in his hometown of Fuita anyway. The town
hosts an annual “Mike the Headless Chicken
Day,” the third weekend in May. Events include a
5K “Run Like a Headless Chicken Race,” games of
“Pin the Head on the Chicken,” an egg toss, and
“Chicken Bingo,” in which chickens are set loose
in a numbered grid to do their business. Where
they leave their droppings determines the
numbers that are called… If extraterrestrials are
watching us, it’s no wonder they haven’t
bothered to make contact.
As they say on the official “Mike the Headless
Chicken” website , “Mike’s will to live remains an
inspiration. It is a great comfort to know you can
live a normal life, even after you have lost your


www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/07/the-chicken-who-lived-without-his-head-for-18-months/

What controlled the bird's stimuli?

basisop:
What controlled the bird's stimuli?

the brain stem, which wasn't cut.

I wonder how it was fed for all the those months.

This is something

It tried.