On September 0, 1945, an American farmer with culinary needs chopped off the head of a rooster named "Mike". Surprisingly, the rooster did not die and the inquisitive farmer decided to keep him alive. Mike lived for 2 more years, the farmer fed him with a pipette, although Mike tried to scoop food down his throat himself …
… A young cockerel, five and a half months old, fumbles in the dust outside his chicken coop in Fruita, Colorado. The unsuspecting bird looked just amazing on this now famous day.
Clara Olsen was planning on making chicken for dinner. Her husband, Lloyd Olsen, was sent to the chicken coop on a very normal mission - to prepare the chicken for the frying pan. But the solution to the problem was not quite ordinary. Lloyd knew that his mother-in-law would dine with them and that she loved chicken neck. He aimed the ax so as to leave the neck as large as possible. “It was important to please the mother-in-law both in the 40s of the last century and today.”
Skill hit and the chicken looks more like a fresh poultry carcass. Then the resilient bird recovered from the shock and "life began to improve." Mike (it is not known when the famous rooster got his nickname) returned to what he was doing before the execution. He went to look for crumbs in the yard and clean the feathers just like the rest of his coop buddies.
When the next morning Olsen found Mike sleeping with his "head" under his wing, he decided that since Mike survived, he should live on. Lloyd came up with a way to feed and water him. Mike was pipetted with grain and water.
It was becoming obvious that Mike was an unusual rooster.
After a week of new life, Mike Olsen took him and drove him 250 miles to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Skeptical scientists have tried to answer all the questions about Mike's amazing ability to live without a head. It was determined that the blade of the ax had leaked through the jugular vein, and a blood clot prevented Mike from dying of blood loss. Although most of his head was missing, most of his brain stem and one ear remained with him. Since most of the chicken's reflexes are controlled by the brain stem, Mike was able to stay quite healthy.
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In the 18 MONTHS that Mike lived as The Amazing Headless Chicken, he gained weight from just 2.5 pounds to almost 8 pounds. Olsen said in an interview that Mike was "a fine example of a healthy chicken except for the lack of a head."
Some residents of Fruita also remember Mike - "he was a big fat chicken who didn't know he didn't have a head" - "he seemed as happy as any other chicken."
The wonder rooster was a must-see, and Olsen conducted a national tour. The curious in New York, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, and San Diego all paid 25 cents to see Mike. The Amazing Chicken was valued at $ 10,000 and insured for the same amount. His fame and fortune improved further after his publications in Life and Time Magazine. It goes without saying, Everything was registered in the Guinness Book of Records.
On his way back from one of those road trips, Olsen stopped at a motel in the Arizona desert. In the middle of the night, Mike began to choke. Lloyd couldn't quickly find the dropper to clear Mike's throat. And Mike left this mortal world …
The town of Fruita now hosts an annual festival celebrating Mike's depressing desire to live. The program includes concerts, a car show, a running competition (it's called “Run Like a Headless Chicken”) and other joys in life.