Chickens are amazing creatures that can continue living for a period of time without their heads attached. While most chickens will die quickly after decapitation, there are rare cases where chickens have survived and even thrived for months or years after having their heads cut off. In this article, we’ll explore exactly how a chicken is able to live without its head and look at some incredible examples throughout history of two-legged “zombie chickens” that defied the odds.
Why Can Some Chickens Live Without Their Heads?
Most people assume that chopping the head off a chicken will kill it immediately. This is because the brain is located in the head and the brain controls all of the body’s vital functions like breathing heartbeat, consciousness, etc. So logically, removing the head should eliminate all brain function and quickly result in death.
However, chickens have a unique anatomy that allows some of them to live for extended periods of time after decapitation as long as part of their brain stem remains intact. The brain stem controls unconscious activities like breathing, heartbeat and balance. If those functions continue operating, the chicken can technically stay alive.
According to Dr Wayne J Kuenzel, poultry physiologist at the University of Arkansas, chickens have very few bones in their neck region. This allows their trachea and esophagus to remain flexible. When a chicken’s head is chopped off, these crucial structures are often left undamaged which is key for survival.
Additionally, chickens have a blood-clotting reflex that will quickly seal any severed blood vessels in the neck. This prevents them from bleeding out, which gives the brain stem the ability to keep functioning without oxygenated blood being pumped from the heart.
So in essence, if the cut misses the jugular vein and leaves most of brain stem and one ear intact, there is a possibility of the chicken surviving for an extended period without its head attached. It’s still an extremely rare phenomenon, but the unique anatomy of chickens does make it possible.
Amazing Headless Chicken Survivors Throughout History
While most chickens will die soon after decapitation, there are a handful of well-documented cases of chickens living for months or years without their heads:
Mike the Headless Chicken (1945)
The most famous headless chicken was a wyandotte rooster named Mike who lived for 18 months after having his head chopped off in 1945. After a failed beheading attempt, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado decided to care for Mike rather than kill him.
Mike the headless chicken was fed with an eyedropper and became a national sensation. He went on tour, travelling across the country and was photographed for Time and Life magazines. Mike’s owner charged 25 cents admission for people to see him and earned $4,500 a month (equivalent to $63,400 today). His story shocked the world and remains the record for longest surviving chicken without a head according to Guinness World Records.
Headless Chicken in Thailand (March 2018)
In March 2018, there was a report of another headless chicken surviving and even thriving in Thailand. After its head was accidentally chopped off, the chicken was able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily. A video shows the chicken attempting to preen itself. This headless chicken in Thailand survived for a few weeks thanks to its intact brain stem before eventually dying.
Miracle Mike (September 1945)
In September 1945, a news report from Salt Lake Tribune detailed the story of a five-and-a-half month old wyandotte chicken named Miracle Mike who lived for 18 months after a farmer attempted to behead him but missed the jugular vein leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact. Mike the headless chicken was fed a mixture of milk and water with an eyedropper and made a gurgling sound in his throat when trying to crow.
Brainless Chicken Project (2012)
In 2012, there was a controversial proposal by UK designer André Ford to raise “brainless chickens” optimized for factory farming. Since most of a chicken’s reflexes and functions are controlled by the brain stem, Ford suggested removing the entire cerebral cortex of chickens which he claimed would inhibit their ability to feel pain. Thankfully, this project never actually happened. But it highlighted the extent to which chickens can live without higher brain functions.
How Long Can a Headless Chicken Survive?
Based on these incredible cases, we know that under the right circumstances some chickens can live for months or even years without their heads. However, most chickens will not survive more than a few minutes after decapitation.
According to Dr. Tom Roudybush, a veterinarian, most chickens bleed to death within 30 seconds to 2 minutes. If the cut severs their jugular vein and fully removes their brain stem, they quickly die from blood loss or elimination of involuntary functions like breathing and heartbeat.
For the rare chickens that keep these basic functions going, they can survive hours or days at a minimum. However, their quality of life is extremely poor. Most headless chickens appear agitated and have trouble balancing or seeing without eyes and ears. They are unable to eat or drink without assistance. Only with round-the-clock human care could headless chickens like Mike live for months or years.
So while it’s physiologically possible for chickens to live without their heads, it’s safe to say most will not make it beyond a few minutes or hours at most before giving out. The famous headless chicken survivors are extremely unique cases and were only able to thrive so long with extensive care from their owners. Going forward, hopefully more humane slaughter methods will be used so chickens don’t have to suffer these gruesome botched decapitations for the sake of human curiosity.
What happens when a chicken’s head is chopped off?
- Beheading disconnects the brain from the rest of the body, but for a short period the spinal cord circuits still have residual oxygen.
- Without input from the brain these circuits start spontaneously. “The neurons become active, the legs start moving,” says Dr Tom Smulders of Newcastle University.
- Usually the chicken is lying down when this happens, but in rare cases, neurons will fire a motor programme of running.
- “The chicken will indeed run for a little while,” says Smulders. “But not for 18 months, more like 15 minutes or so.”
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.
“For years he would claim he had sold [the chicken] to a guy in the sideshow circuit,” Waters says, before pausing. “It wasnt until, well, a few years before he died that he finally admitted to me one night that it died on him. I think he didnt ever want to admit he screwed up and let the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs die on him.”
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 thing that surprises Dr Tom Smulders, a chicken expert at the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at Newcastle University, is that he did not bleed to death. 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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Miracles are Real | Story of Mike the Headless Chicken | Fruita, Colorado | The Dr. Binocs Show
FAQ
How long do chickens live without a head?
Mike the Headless Chicken (April 20, 1945 – March 17, 1947) was a male Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after he was beheaded, surviving because most of his brain stem remained intact and it did not bleed to death due to a blood clot.
Can chickens survive with their heads cut off?
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 long can you survive without a head?
How can a chicken eat without a head?
He fed Mike by dripping water and liquid food into his esophagus with a dropper and removed mucous from his throat with a syringe.
Can a chicken live without its head?
Part of the reason that a chicken can live without its head has to do with its skeletal anatomy, according to Dr. Wayne J. Kuenzel, a poultry physiologist and neurobiologist at the University of Arkansas.
Can a chicken live without a brain?
This phenomenon is known as the “headless chicken” and it has been documented in chickens since 1945. The most famous case was that of Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived for 18 months after his head was cut off. The reason why a chicken can live without its brain is because chickens have an open circulatory system.
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.
How do Headless Chickens survive?
The bird’s heart will continue to beat, pumping blood around its body and supplying oxygen to its organs. This means that the chicken can still breathe, as oxygen will be supplied to its lungs via the bloodstream. Another factor that allows headless chickens to survive is their nervous system.
What is a headless chicken?
Headless chickens are a phenomenon that has been documented since the 1940s. It is a strange occurrence that has baffled scientists for decades. The phenomenon occurs when a chicken somehow survives decapitation, and is able to live without its head for days or even weeks. This is possible due to the bird’s unique physiology and biology.
Are Headless Chickens a real thing?
Headless chickens have long been a source of fascination, and the science behind them is even more remarkable. The phenomenon of headless chickens is known as “auto-decapitation” and occurs when a chicken’s neck muscles contract so quickly that the head is severed from the body.