Decapitating a chicken is an unsettling thought for most of us. However there have been some fascinating cases of chickens surviving for a period of time without their heads. This defies our expectations and raises some interesting scientific questions. In this article, we’ll explore exactly how long chickens can live without their heads and delve into the biology that enables headless survival.
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
This is often misinterpreted as the chicken still being alive and conscious. In reality, it is due to residual nerve impulses still firing from the spinal cord. Without oxygenated blood, the brain stops functioning almost immediately. So any post-decapitation movement is an involuntary reflex rather than 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
So what enables this brief post-decapitation activity? The key is the brainstem. The brainstem connects the brain to the spinal cord and controls fundamental bodily processes like breathing, heartbeat and reflexes.
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 exceptional circumstances, a chicken may inexplicably survive decapitation for far longer than 30 seconds. Mike the Headless Chicken remains the most famous example of this. In 1945, a farmer named Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado attempted to behead Mike the 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?
- 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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Can A Chicken Really Live Without A Head?
FAQ
How long can chicken run 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.
How can a chicken survive with no head?
Mike was able to stand, walk and perch, because a chicken’s brain stem and cerebellum extend 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. architect student, André Ford, in 2012 to propose the systematic rearing of brain-dead broilers as a method of maximizing factory-farm production and to curb 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.