It’s true that a headless chicken will initially act erratically and without much thought, just like any human who is “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Now imagine that chicken is Miracle Mike, the one that went 18 months without a head and yet lived.
But first, let’s talk about beheading Mike. According to Time magazine, a Mrs. L.A. Olson (perhaps the wife of farmer Lloyd Olsen) severed the head of a chicken in 1945. As reported by Bec Crew for Scientific American, the blow was intended to preserve as much of the victim’s neck as possible. (The mother in question was going to enjoy the neck meat as a special treat.) Olsen’s blow missed the chicken completely, although it did separate some of the brain from the body.
Mike, the hen without a head. This image was sourced from: Miketheheadlesschicken.org / Wikimedia Commons.
The brains of chickens are positioned at an angle that allows the cerebellum and brain stem, its most primitive components, to stay in the neck even if the head is severed. Written by Rebecca Katzman for the Contemporary Farmer.
According to an article written by Ester Inglis-Arkell for io9, the day following Mike’s purported execution, Mrs. Olsen discovered the chicken “sleeping with the other hens, his neck tucked beneath his wing.”
His owners either realised they had something special on their hands or they felt terrible for him. In either case, they cared for him and fed him with an eye dropper. The legend of The Headless Wonder Chicken quickly spread, resulting in a steady stream of visitors willing to part up a quarter to witness the phenomenon.
Mike’s notoriety skyrocketed rapidly, but he was killed in the middle of a national tour in 1947. His owners had lost the implement usually used to drain the fluid that occasionally built up in his throat. Mike had apparently strangled to death on his own saliva and was at peace at last….S££ MOR£
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