Dead Chick Walking: The Miracle Mike

Mike is probably the most famous chicken of all times and the tale of’ Mike the Headless Chicken ‘has been told from generations to generations.  Mike sometimes also termed as Miracle Mike was owned by farmer Lloyd Olsen of Florida, Colorado.

Lloyd chose a five month old chicken named Mike as he had to serve his mother in law.  His axe missed the Jugular vein and left most of chicken’s brain and one ear attached with the body.  Olsen was surprised to see the headless chicken walking and able
to balance itself.

Upon seeing the will to live Lloyd decided to feed the chicken and let Mike live for as long as he could. He continued to feed him through the eye dropper and gave him small grains of corn along with the mixture of milk and water.

Mike soon get used to his new body and started to reach the perches as a normal routine without any difficulties. His crowing was not as good as it used to be with the head attached and a gurgling effect was produced through his throat.

He also started to adjust to the conditions and began to look out for food through his neck. Mike lived headless for a period of 18 months but his fame attracted tourists and visitors from across the world. His pictures were published by a number of news
papers and magazines including Time and Life magazine.

Any one was allowed to view the living miracle of the Headless Mike for a price of 25 cents. Mike earned a handsome amount of US$ 4,500 per month towards the height of his popularity. A number of people started to copy Mike and started beheading chickens
but no other chicken could survive longer than a day.

Mike’s headless but legendary journey finally came to an end in March 1947 as Mike started choking in the middle of the night and Lloyd failed to help his favourite most chicken.

It was determined after the post mortem of Mike’s body that the axe had just missed the carotid artery and a clot helped the bird from bleeding to death. Mike lived a healthy life for a year and a half as most of his brain was left with the body and his
breathing and all the reflex actions were working accurately.

Mike is still remembered in Fruita, Colorado as an annual “Mike the Headless Chicken Day” is celebrated in the third week of May to live the memories of the Mighty Mike.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=5720

Posted by Ahmed Babar on Dec 8 2011. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry