live headless chicken!

JOR_EL · Jul 28, 2001

Hey everybody,
All this chicken-doody talk made me pay a little extra attention to a show on public t.v.(I think) the other night. It was about a rooster that had his head chopped-off and then lived for weeks(months?). It became sort-of-famous, and went on tour, and was filmed walking around etc.

It was fed intra-neck-ously (ugh!), and seemed reasonably content, although, of course, he never actually said so! /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

Does anyone have a clue as to whether this story was pure "chicken doody" or not?

Anyone ever hear of any similar incidents? (I figure there's a lot of chicken-chopping going (and gone) on, so if this is possible, it's likely to have happened more than once!

Any stories?? /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Larry

Von · Jul 28, 2001

Here's a site that tells the story of the chicken named Miracle Mike the headless chicken!

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/headless_chicken/index.html

jinman · Jul 28, 2001

...probably raised his I.Q. when he lost his head...of course, he jumped three rat terriers and two poodles 'cause he thought they were hens.../w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

This is too funny...

JimI

Harv · Jul 30, 2001

YIKES! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

The broker I bought my tractor from did such a fantastic job, I dubbed him "Miracle Mike"!

He may not appreciate the implications, but I'm sorely tempted to send his girlfriend "the rest of the story". /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

StoneHeartFarm · Jul 31, 2001

Jor El

Didn't see the PBS special, but I recall reading about this critter several years ago. If I'm correct, this occured a good number of years ago. It may have been the first "special effect". Or was that throwing the silver dollar across the Potomac?

SHF

jimmoore · Jul 31, 2001

The headless chicken is no real miracle. Just think how long some of our washinton politicos can survive with their heads in their a$$es

jim

JonE · Aug 1, 2001

Hillarious!

GlennT · Aug 1, 2001

This happened quite a number of years ago and it was well publicized. I have seen a newspaper photograph of it. The owner fed the rooster with an eye dropper. I don't have access to a Guinness Book of Records at the moment, but it might be included there. I remember thinking at the time that I really wouldn't want to go down in history as the owner of a headless rooster, but then, different strokes...

StoneHeartFarm · Aug 1, 2001

Still say it HAS to be a special effect. The fact that chickens are known to run around after their heads are chopped just adds the smoke and mirrors. This is like staring at a brick wall made of paper.

How come he didn't bleed to death when they chopped his head? Must have been some blood flow to the head in the first place (unlike politicians)/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif so, he should have bled out.

This happened at a time when people loved side show attractions and weird phenomenon. (Blue dresses and Crop circles, I guess people haven't changed much). England was captivated with pictures of "fairies" in the garden, which turned out to be a couple of little girls with a camera and a cut-out book. Stumped alot of people for a long time.

I would suspect the amazing yard bird was actually a series of different birds. Maybe if you chop one and immediately dip the neck in something like styptic, it will stop the bleeding, but let the bird run around for awhile.

One thing for certain, this trick made someone a lot of money, and that would have been worth a little effort to keep the whole thing going. Remember, David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. Smoke and mirrors.

SHF
A skeptic is a guy who makes all the fun stuff dull.

StoneHeartFarm · Aug 1, 2001

Jor El,

Another possibility occured to me today. The smoke is that the chicken never had its head cut off. The mirror is that the chicken was born with a deformity that resulted in a small rudimentary head with no eyes or beak and set at a really odd angle, so that it APPEARED to have no head.

This explaination satisfies the number one rule I have learned in life: Critters die when you cut their heads off.

And the number two rule: People will make money any way they can.

SHF