Mike The Headless Chicken

There is something to be said for the will to live, the lifeforce that propels through a journey on this earth, if at any point in your life you think you can't go on, look to Mike for inspiration.

Mike for those unaware, as I was till this weekend, whilst in Dublin for the Clinical Biochemists Conference - what I was doing there? Only God knows, I certainly have no logical explanation. Anyway, my colleague KOB came up with this and after checking that this wasn't a Meat Trade joke, I was absolutely enthralled.

In summary, Ol' Mike was a Chicken who refused to die even after having his head chopped off. Essentially, there was enough of his brain stem left to sustain his body functions (I presume chickens don't need much of a brain, having said that humans probably don't either, looking at some politicians) in addition his respiratory and digestive tracts were open, hence he breathed through his exposed wind-pipe and was fed liquid and food through his exposed gullet.

The analogy for those without the will to live:

a. It could be worse, at least you've still got your head on your shoulders.;

b. The force of the will is insurmountable.

Having said, that Mike finally succumbed to accidental death by choking on a sweetcorn. My admiration is boundless.

Apparently Mike has his own website, http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.html from where I got the photo above, Mike joins Motion!!!! as another hero of the day.

Please read:

Mike the Headless Chicken is now the cock of the walk in downtown Fruita.

A sculpture of Mike—the Fruita chicken that lived for 18 months in the 1940s minus his head—is being permanently installed in a flower planter on a downtown corner today. The 4-foot-high Mike likeness is appropriately made from 300 pounds of old metal farm castoffs that include ax heads, sickle blades, hay-rake teeth and other cutting objects.

The Fruita Chamber of Commerce decided to enshrine Mike because the rooster, which hopped off the chopping block and went on the sideshow circuit instead of into the cooking pot, has brought the world's notice to this town of 6,000 more than half a century later.

Fruita's reputation for mountain biking and dinosaurs has paled beside the attention drawn by a bird without a head. Since his bizarre tale was publicized last year, when the town held its first Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, Fruita chamber officials and historians have been inundated with thousands of calls, letters, and e-mails, from New Delhi to Auckland, wanting more information about Mike.

The curious most often ask "Was Mike for real?" He was.

Mike belonged to the late Fruita farmer Lloyd Olsen, who, in an attempt to please his finicky mother-in-law, lopped off Mike's head at the base of the skull, leaving as much of the tasty neck as possible. Following his beheading, Mike fluffed up his feathers and went about his normal chicken business.

But he could only go through the motions of pecking for food, and when he tried to crow, a gurgle came out. Olsen started putting feed and water directly into Mike's gullet with an eyedropper when he was still alive the next morning. When Mike was still alive a week later, Olsen took him to incredulous University of Utah scientists, who theorized Mike had enough of a brain stem left to live headless.

Olsen hired Mike a manager, who took him on tour around the country. Mike was pictured in a Life magazine spread and listed in the Guinness Book of Records. He was a popular attraction until he choked to death on a corn kernel in an Arizona motel.

Mike's story languished in scrapbooks until last spring, when chamber of commerce officials were looking for something more interesting than pioneers to focus on for Colorado Heritage Week. The rest is headless history.…

Nancy Lofholm Denver

Denver Post Western Slope Bureau, 31st March 2000