Little Mike was hatched on April 20th, 1945, in Fruita, Colorado, US. He was a happy little chicken growing up with his brothers and sisters, just clucking around. It was September 10th, 1945, when farmer Lloyd Olsen was killing chickens for market and ready for his mother-in-law to come for dinner. Now, I’m sure many of you know that some chickens will run around for a few minutes after death because of nerve reactions and Farmer Olsen was used to this. He returned later carrying a Wyandotte chicken called Mike (fine name for a chicken). However, there was a bit of an issue; Farmer Olsen had buggered the beheading. Our little feathery friends have quite complicated brains; there is extraordinarily little at the front of the head, and the majority is further neck. Farmer Olsen had only removed the top part of Mike’s head with the axe, leaving around 80% of the brain behind. This 80% controlled his breathing, heart rate, hunger, and digestion.
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Mike was, quite understandably, a bit flappy about this, clumsily running around and trying to crow (although this was more of a gurgling as, you know, he had no mouth). Farmer Olsen was shocked but impressed; he decided Mike deserved a second chance. He fed Mike liquidised food and water through a dropper and used a syringe to clear his throat to stop him from choking. Soon, word spread about our miraculous mate, Mike, and people wanted to see him - even the local newspaper ran a story about the living headless chicken.
Not long after, Hope Wade travelled nearly 300 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah; word had spread far and wide about Mike. Wade was a sideshow promoter (they were still very popular then) and had a proposal: take Mike on the sideshow circuit. Money would be involved, so Farmer Olsen probably thought, ‘Why the hell not’?
To begin with, they travelled to the University of Utah, where Mike had some tests run on him. There are a few rumours that the scientists involved surgically removed the heads of other chickens to see if they, too, would survive*. It seems an excellent use of resources…
*Spoiler alert – they didn’t.
Hope Wade had branded our plucky little chicken ‘Miracle Mike, the Headless Chicken’, and even Life and Times magazines came to do features on him. Soon after, Farmer Olsen, his wife, Clara, and Mike set off for their adventures around the US. Clara and Farmer Olsen toured with Mike around California and Arizona before returning home for the harvest season. At this point, Mike continued off on his tours under the watchful eye of Wade, travelling around the south-eastern United States. Mike was being displayed to the public for 25 cents a view. At the height of his popularity, he earned $4,500 monthly, roughly $60,365.08 in 2021.
After this tour, Mike had a well-deserved break before going to Phoenix, Arizona, in the Spring of 1947. On 17th March 1947, Farmer Olsen was woken by a choking sound. It was Mike. He and Clara hunted for Mike’s syringe but to no avail; they had left it at the sideshow. Before an alternative was found, our little hero Mike had died. He was 23 months old.
Years later, the couple’s great-grandson, Troy Waters, said ‘for years, he would claim he had sold [the chicken] to a guy in the sideshow circuit. It wasn’t until a few years before he died that he finally admitted he screwed up and let the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs die on him’.
But that’s not the end of our headless hero, oh no! In 1999, Fruita Colorado started an annual ‘Mike the Headless Chicken Festival’, held the first weekend in June. As well as having poultry shows, they also have amazing events such as the Chicken Cluck Off, Chicken Bingo, Pin the Head on the Chicken and 5K Run Like a Headless Chicken Race. And I have never wanted to go to a festival so much in my life. You can even order Mike the Headless t-shirts off the website.
And that’s my little tale about Mike, the Headless Chicken. I do have chickens as pets, but not a headless one; I think my next one may be named Mike in honour of this little legend (don’t worry, I will leave their head intact!). Thanks for reading, look after yourselves, and I will see you soon!
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