# Chased by Headless Chickens **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624 "2000-08-24T19:14:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/1 "2000-08-24T19:14:55Z")
(Great, they think… another [chicken thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=35484) by Skott…) I very much doubt many people can relate to this experience: Growning up on the “farm”, we often killed chickens to eat them. My grandfather would take the soon-to-be-fried chicken out in the field, with us grandkids there to help. Then the head came off (of the chicken). Now, I don’t know how many of you have actually _seen_ a chicken run around with its head cut off, but it can do so for upwards of 30 seconds before it finally dies. Now, here’s the question: Everytime this happened, the headless chicken would _chase_ one of us grandkids (usually me). I’m not talking once or twice, which I could chalk up to random chance, but every freakin’ time. Now, how can a headless chicken chase someone? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/2 "2000-08-24T19:18:19Z")
Can’t answer that—but if you want to see headless chickens run around, rent the John Waters film “Mondo Trasho.” The opening credits are shown over one of the cast members decapitating chickens. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/3 "2000-08-24T19:49:38Z")
And let’s also not forget Waters’ _Pink Flamingos_, which includes a sex act between a man, a woman, and two chickens. This may be silly, but were the kids usually standing in a circle around the chicken when it auditioned for MacBeth? ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/4 "2000-08-24T20:30:19Z")
[Mike the Headless Chicken](http://members.tripod.com/earthdude1/headless_chicken/mike.html) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/5 "2000-08-24T21:59:23Z")
The headless chicken has also been discussed by the great Cecil Adams: [Is it possible for a chicken to live with its head cut off? (19-Jan-1990)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_086.html) ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/6 "2000-08-24T22:00:17Z")
Thanks for the link, **sugaree**. > [@](#): > > Apparently, most of a chicken’s reflex actions are located in the brain stem… Okay, so that can explain why a chicken can stay “alive” for so long after being beheaded. It may even have most, if not all, of its cognative abilities after beheading. However, without eyes to see, how could it follow me? I mean, I had to jump up on fences, where the chicken would run into the fence, and just stay there until it died. It was obviously after me. The **only** think I can think of is that it could somehow feel the vibrations in the ground that my running made and followed that pattern, for whatever reason. Either than, or its head was watching me… ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/7 "2000-08-25T06:33:47Z")
I suspect your grandpa was aiming them at you when he dropped them, just to see you little tykes run! ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/8 "2000-08-25T16:48:49Z")
Well, that might be a viable hypothesis if the we tykes ran in a straight line, like the idiot in the movie who runs away from the car bearing down on them… but we didn’t. We ran in many different directions, even circles sometimes and the stupid headless chicken would follow us. Come on… doesn’t anybody at least have a pseudo-scientific explanation for me?? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/9 "2000-08-25T17:51:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skott \* > \*\*Well, that might be a viable hypothesis if the we tykes ran in a straight line, like the idiot in the movie who runs away from the car bearing down on them… but we didn’t. We ran in many different directions, even circles sometimes and the stupid headless chicken would follow us. > > Come on… doesn’t anybody at least have a pseudo-scientific explanation for me?? \*\* Maybe when you scurried about you caused vibrations in the ground which the chicken responded to, and followed. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2000, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chased-by-headless-chickens/30624/10 "2000-08-26T02:04:41Z")
**Skott** Kid’s memories and perceptions are rather suspect. If, say, you could conduct a controlled experiment where your grandfather chopped off the heads of 20 chickens and you were the only kid standing there, say about 10 feet away, I’ll wager that only a few of them would come your way. Of course, as a kid, it would be hard to stand there while a headless chicken was headed anywhere near you.