# Did a headless chicken really live 18 months? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664 "2000-04-01T15:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/1 "2000-04-01T15:55:00Z")
OK, I know it’s April 1st, and I know I shouldn’t believe everything I read the _other_ 365 days of the year either… During 1945-47, it is claimed a chicken survived for 18 months with its head chopped off. They have a [website](http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/). Supposedly, this made it into the Guinness book of World Records (it isn’t in my 1990 edition) and in Time and Life magazines at the time (before my time). Anyone know anything about this? The purported issue of Life magazine is Oct. 22, 1945. * * * _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/2 "2000-04-01T16:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Did a headless chicken really live 18 months? No. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/3 "2000-04-01T20:44:00Z")
Yes. Cecil Adams says so anyway. [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:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/4 "2000-04-01T21:06:00Z")
No. > [@](#): > > This sheared off the frontal lobes, rendering the bird totally incapable of > thinking about Immanuel Kant but leaving enough of the brain stem to take care of breathing, blood circulation, and the like. In my opinion, this is not headless. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/5 "2000-04-02T00:55:00Z")
This is definitely Great Debate material. Not. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/6 "2000-04-03T01:05:00Z")
Well, I worked in an Animal Science Dept. and we decapitated more chickens that I could count in the course of the research. I never saw one flop around for more than 2-3 minutes. Walking around on the farm? Buy that one and I have a bridge for sale that you might be interested in. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2000, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/7 "2000-04-03T15:19:00Z")
Mike the chicken did exist, and did live without a head. Read Cecil and believe (sorry android, but IMO nothing left but a brain stem, which is high on the spine, qualifies as headless). Mike’s hometown is considering installing a 4.5’ statue to commemorate the brainless bird. I have read no account that specifies how long Mike lived, but contextually indicate it was on the order of many months. He died by choking on a piece of grain. * * * Sig! Sig a Sog! Sig it loud! Sig it Strog! – Karen Carpenter with a head cold ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/8 "2000-04-03T15:27:00Z")
This is weird! I grew up about 20 miles from Fruita, CO, home of Mike the Headless Chicken. Never heard anything about him until now. * * * Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/9 "2000-04-03T23:20:00Z")
android209, from the pictures at the website below, I would be willing to call this chicken headless. [ALL ABOUT MIKE: A True Story Of One Bird’s Will To Live](http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/about_mike.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2000, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/10 "2000-04-03T23:26:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Did a headless chicken really live 18 months? Actually, the most amazing part is not that the bird survived so long, but that it actually served 11 of those months as Secretary of the Interior. * * * **Launcher may train without warning.** ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/11 "2000-04-03T23:45:00Z")
OK, I accept that broadly speaking this is true…but it’s not absolutely headless 😉 My point is that the parts of the brain and glands etc necessary to keep a body alive are located in the head. Remove them and the body dies. Pedantic maybe, but there is a distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Dystopos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@Dystopos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dystopos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-a-headless-chicken-really-live-18-months/9664/12 "2000-04-04T00:06:00Z")
I would be wary of considering the boundary of the head to be the same as the boundary of life. This tends to get the long subordinated-feminine-lunar-fluid-bodily-matrical-vulval-amorphic-blurry parties all frantic. (Not unlike Mike)