A Beheaded Chicken Lived for 18 Months, and His Colorado Hometown Has Celebrated Him with a Festival Since 1999Moná ThomasThu, October 22, 2026 at 9:40 PM UTC
‘Mike,’ the headless chicken, in a photo for “Life Magazine”Credit: Brian Brainerd/The Denver Post via Getty
Mike survived after an ax missed his jugular vein and left much of his brainstem intact
His owners fed him milk, water, and corn by eyedropper before taking “Miracle Mike” on tour
Fruita’s annual festival draws about 15,000 visitors with a 5K, music and eating contests
Fruita, Colo., has spent more than two decades celebrating a rooster that lived for 18 months after being beheaded.
On Sept. 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen chose a young Wyandotte rooster named Mike for a supper he and his wife, Clara Olsen, were hosting for her mother, according to Guinness World Records. Lloyd beheaded the bird with an ax, but Mike survived and continued to walk around the farm, so the family let the bird continue wandering, assuming it would eventually die.
“We’d go out every morning expecting to find him a dead chicken, but there he was, as healthy as could be, preening himself, trying to crow,” Lloyd told reporters, per Mental Floss.
‘Mike,’ the headless chicken, in a photo for “Life Magazine”Credit: Brian Brainerd/The Denver Post via Getty
After the bird chose his own fate, the Olsen family decided to care for him. Lloyd would feed Mike a milk-and-water mix straight into his exposed esophagus with an eyedropper, along with small grains of corn.
Experts say there is a scientific explanation for Mike’s survival: the ax had missed his jugular vein, and a fast-acting blood clot stopped him from bleeding out. Most of his brainstem, which controls basic functions like breathing and heart rate, was also left fully intact.
As word spread, local businessman and sideshow promoter Hope Wade partnered with the Olsens, leading to “Miracle Mike” going on tour, including a trip to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where scientists studied him. The Olsens’ great-grandson, Troy Waters, told the BBC that Lloyd initially “started betting people beer or something that he had a live headless chicken.”
Ture Nycum of the Parks and Recreation Department of Fruita, Colo., holds up a t-shirt for the Mike The Headless Chicken festival on Thursday, April 16, 2009Credit: AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Mike died on March 17, 1947, in a motel in Phoenix where the Olsens woke to the sound of the bird choking. Olsen had reportedly left the eyedropper used to clear Mike’s throat at the previous show location and could not save him in time.
By then, Mike had lived 18 months without a head. He still holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-surviving headless chicken. In 1999, Fruita started celebrating the legendary bird with the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival.
KKCO reported that the event now draws about 15,000 visitors each year. This year’s festival ran May 29 and 30 and included a 5K run (with over 600 participants), live music performances, a “Release the Head” comedy show and a peep-and-wing eating contest.
“Mike has made it worldwide, so he is everywhere. We have visitors coming from all over, even from Australia,” said Ciara Amann, the interim parks and recreation director for Fruita. “The city of Fruita celebrates the story of Mike just really as an option to bring the community together and have some fun.”
Source: Nature