Talk:Mike the Headless Chicken

message: This story is a hoax and should be deleted, because some readers find anything published on the Internet and believe it to be true. 8MM cameras were available as early as the 1920s.   Why no footage of the chicken? With the tech available today, why has no one recreated a headless chicken and then explained how it was done.  Gullible people read this on the Internet and worse in Wikipedia and believe it to be true. If you have removed the head of a chicken or watched the process in a backyard, the chicken dies.  It runs around in a circle (running like a chicken with its head cutoff), bleeds out and dies.  Nothing like a perfect (accidental) strike would occurs. If you planned to eat a chicken, you would not allow it to live, because it appeared alive.   On the farm, if you want to eat the chicken, you would kill it and not doing so would be cruel.You finish the job and eat it. Wikipedia should not publish it with a warning stating that it "may or may not be true." Some believe the moon landing did not happen and was filmed in a Hollywood studio. Should the moon landing have a disclaimer on Wikipedia that "it may or may not be true"? ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜
This article has been marked for deletion as a hoax.  Before anyone gets upset remember there is a process that takes place before the article gets deleted.  Personally I don't thing the article needs to be deleted or should be.  At the very least the festival and the story appear to exist, regardless of whether the story is true.  It should be a simple matter to save the article: Just find a reliable source that claims it's a true story.  If anyone can find a Guinness link that works, that'd be perfect.  Failing that, if the article is reworded to state that a story exists, which may or may not be true, with a festival etc, that'd save the article too.  
Best of luck.  --HarrisX 02:49, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You can't be serious. Everyone knows that Mike the Headless Chicken is (or was) real. --Diablorex 20:33, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  AFD Nomination 

message: We checked out your website and really like it. There’s some great information and we do have a “Mike” following in the UK. We are giving you permission to copy the www.miketheheadlesschicken.org photographs on that website. I did find one thing we would like you to correct and that is the date of the annual festival. Our first festival was on May 17th which was the 3rd weekend in May, 1999. We continue to have the festival on the 3rd weekend in May, but its not always on the 17th. Let me know when you have completed the changes.
Yvonne Piquette
City of Fruita
email: yp@fruita.org
:Information on the festival date corrected and Yvonne emailed to confirm Brookie 16:01, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Copyright authority - emailed to User:Brookie 6th April 2005

message: What is this quotation? Where does this come from? Lupin 14:30, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I remember singing this in the playground - don't know where it's from though - something from the time? McGnasher 17:25, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It is one of those things that stick in your mind for ages - goodness knows where it comes from - but seem apposite to poor old Mike - especially in its current abbreviated version! Mike Mike ....Brookie 17:37, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I have been humming that damn phrase all weekend! Mike is haunting me . Aargh.... McGnasher 10:43, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Me also - go away Mike Brookie 19:00, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Mike, Mike - where's your head? Even without it you're not dead!" 

message: : The tone is fine - it is a light hearted article that's been here a long time
So what? I thought this was supposed to be a serious encyclopedia. How does one recognize "a light hearted article"? Can I insert some "light-hearted text" in the style of
: Not quite sure what to do with his by now loose head, on the first night after the decapitation Mike slept with it under his wing; it was this touching tenacity to life and the now redundant organ that convinced Olson to reprieve Mike from the cooking pot.
into George W. Bush or into Superstring theory? Oh, too serious topic? So what about Groucho Marx?
--Mormegil 11:39, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Wikipedia is serious business. --205.146.140.242 16:12, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

text: the article seems well supported enough to me, and the tone is apropriate to the content. That seems to me the most importan judge of such concerns. 198.137.27.40 18:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I put up the inappropriate tone tag, Just because the subject of the article is light hearted doesn't mean the article should be.Greatigers 23:52, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry - disagree! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 12:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Brookie, I must say I'm glad to see there's someone here besides me that think of Wikipedia as more than "just an encyclopedia".  It a shame that the admins will stop at nothing to keep it that way.... Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:18, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Encyclopedia? 

message: This disgusting article should be deleted! This should not be an encyclopedic article.
Not only is this case of this poor chicken a horrible animal rights abuse, it also damages WIKIPEDIA's image by even putting it as an encyclopedic article.
:It's a weird world - there's room for all here. Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 14:57, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There's an article about Hitler, so why not the story of an unfortunate chicken?  --Ravi12346 06:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: the article is highly appropriate for Wikipedia. It is of historic significance --Diablorex 20:37, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

text: No! This article is interesting and informative. It should be kept. I had no idea that this was possible until I stumbled upon this article. I do not understand why it should be deleted simply because it is about a chicken that was mistreated. IMOHO spreading information about past mistakes (and sufferings) makes it possible to avoid similar mistakes again in the future. /Magnus
Mike..... I LOVE you you little bird-brained.... uhhhhh.... semi-bird-brained little bundle of lovin'. May you crow loud and proud up there in chicken heaven. Sniff. I love you, Mike.Obbop 17:14, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see anything wrong with it. If you believe it should be deleted, report it. Good friend100 02:43, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Wikipedia is NOT CENSORED, and I wonder why you searched for headless chicken. Zanusi 10:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

text: Are you suggesting that WP shouldn't have an article about rape or child abuse or a widely known instance of such a crime because these are cruel things to do? Mike is notable, apparently his story is verifiable. Our personal views on the subject matter of an article have nothing to do with its encyclopedic value. 84.224.198.87 (talk) 21:23, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: No, I only think that it's disrespectful towards animals to have a picture of a headless chicken in a serious encyclopedia like Wikipedia. 22:48, 25 August 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: You mean like this? --77.186.98.254 (talk) 01:06, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

text: I too think that the existence of this article badly damages Wikipedia's image as a serious encyclopedia. Just because something can be sourced does not mean that it should find its way into an encyclopedia. The only saving grace is that it is highly unlikely anyone is going to stumble upon this article. And if they stumble, let's hope they don't lose their head. Bus stop (talk) 02:31, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: How is this animal rights abuse? We are talking about an incident that happened in the dandy 40s, this Chicken was supposed to be for dinner, they didn't mean to cock up (haha) its execution! And he had a good life, and seemingly wasn't in any pain and sadly choked to death. And Wikipedia is diverse, this article is notable in the fields of biology and avian fields, and dare I say it, celebrities. It's of a biological interest in the way he continued living long after he was mostly decapitated, interesting in the sense he was a chicken, and also, he became pretty famous. I don't see why it should effect the quality of the encyclopedia - you have to be rather specific to find this article (I only just did) in searching. Lets say they had something about Mike the Headless Chicken on the main chicken article, that would be kinda degrading I think. By having this here, it in no way lessons the quality of the Jupiter article, one of my favorites. Byebye --Τασουλα  (Almira) (talk) 23:07, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

text: With respect, I don't understand the argument about WP being "serious" and therefore wrong to include this article. I think the "seriousness" should appear in the treatment of the subject (in the style, the NPOV, the depth of the article, the reliability of its sources, the legality of the pictures etc.). The subject matter itself need not be "serious", it should be notable and verifiable, basically. This chicken, in my understanding of these guidelines, is both, and that is how he finds his way into WP. His survival in this condition is a unique phenomenon. 84.224.166.13 (talk) 23:16, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

text: I have no problem with this article.  It was even used to answer a Q we had over at the Ref Desk.  If we have articles on bullfighting, dog fighting, and bear-baiting, then we can have this, too. StuRat (talk) 00:04, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  THIS DISGUSTING ARTICLE SHOULD BE DELETED! 

message: All of the external links say the owner's name was Olsen.  Can anyone verify this?  --Ravi12346 06:50, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Going from the official website I guess it is spelt with an "e" - I have changed the article spellings Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 07:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Olson or Olsen?

message: So umm... any leads to a source with info on how to make your own survivable headless chicken? I'm sure this thought has crossed more minds than my own. --70.251.91.6 05:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Cut as high up on the head as you can without crushing the skull, to try not to destroy the autonomous part of the chicken's nervous system. You may have to practice a bit, it'd be easier to practice if you own a chicken farm, of course, and different breeds of chickens may be better suited than others. I've heard it's not unusual for chickens not to die immediately upon decapitation. Tubezone 04:34, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Not immediately, no. "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off" is even an expression, but cases such as Mike must be rather rare for the bird to achieve such fame. Also: ew! --Kizor 18:53, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  DYI? 

message: ...to show that it's actually nonsense. This story got famous mostly becouse it was such a very good photo manipulation. Take a good look and you'll see that it's pre-pre-pre-photoshop from the times that they photoshopped with invisible tape, scissors and a re-photograph of the result. Pee-Tor 20:38, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Shouldn't this page be moved to a subpage of WP:BJAODN instead? -- Puckdude 01:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Absolutely! Pee-Tor 10:31, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

text: You're right, it should actually be moved to Uncyclopedia! Pee-Tor 12:02, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

text: It did happened. Iamhungey 00:20, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's things like this that prove to me how stubborn people are.  Even when something has been proven to exist you constantly deny it anyway.  It makes me wonder who the crazy people in the world really are....  Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:15, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Moved the article 

message: This wouldn't be a bad article for the main page on April 1, 2007.  It reads well and is ... funny, in the appropriate sort of way.  :)  Antandrus  (talk) 04:53, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It would be great.  If it were a joke. Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:13, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Apri1 1

message: The current article gives the impression that this is true story. But is remains unclear of this is so. This should be cleared up. --Walter 20:30, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe someone could contact University of Utah about this  Best an Amercian can do that. --Walter 20:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  And email has been send by a Wikinewsie, waiting for responds --Walter 19:18, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Of course it's true you non-believers! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp !  (Whisper...) 12:16, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hoax/true 

message: Why does this article have four nonfree images? I can see the benefit of a picture to illustrate the chicken, but the second and third seem redundant. I don't see what the purpose of including the logo is - we don't have a logo for Boston marathon for example. This logo could be replaced by a free photo of the chicken festival. — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:19, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. Go ahead and remove some. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 23:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What's the harm in the pics? Leave them all. Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp !  (Whisper...) 04:38, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: WP:NFCC#3 "As little non-free content as possible is used in an article.". — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:06, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Excessive images 

message: isn't a male chicken a rooster? is this a female name mike? if so why does article refer to it as a he?♠♦Д narchistPig♥♣ (talk) 02:19, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Because he was called Mike The Headless Chicken, the article title isn't a discription, its the creatures name.☯Ferdia O'Brien (T)/(C) 03:09, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Hens are girl chickens, roosters are boy chickens, but both sexes are chickens.  According to the article, Mike was a rooster.  --CliffC (talk) 03:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Boy chicken 

message: I say that some one should delete the vulgar "bingo event" mention, especially in the light of it needing citation!  It is obviously not true, and just an attempt to draw attention by making up something vulgar.69.210.142.103 (talk) 21:08, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Neither chicken nor cow bingo have articles. What kind of encylopedia is this. Ceoil (talk) 23:12, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bingo? unlikely 

message: (Savechris (talk) 17:12, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference Time magazine 

message: The whole thing smacks of a hoax.
1. If the guy killing the chicken missed the neck, why did he not try again? Why go into the whole tale about killing it for supper for his mother-in-law and then the story dies right there? What happened? Why didn't he kill it? 
2. If you look at the pictures, these isn't a single one that show a clear shot of the head - there is one with someone holding his or her hands over the body, with what appears to be an intact head sticking out.
3. The story says Mike was a rooster. All the pictures of the supposed Mike show what appears to be a hen - there ia a marked difference between a hen and a rooster, even if this difference is less noticeable is some breeds. If you look up pictures of the Wyandotte breed, you will clearly be able to tell males and females apart. 
4. The story tells us that Mike would attempt to crow. Hens do not crow, only roosters do. Also, the fact that it tells us that it was "unable to crow at dawn" tells us this is a folk legend - roosters crow any time of day; it is only in cartoons and storybooks that we see them crowing to wake up the village!
5. If most of its head was severed - therefore incuding the part of the head where the eyes are located, then how could it jump onto perches? It would have to be able to see the perch to be able to climb onto it.
6. Stories differ on how the chicken died, some saying it choked on food, others that it choked on mucus and some saying that the severed trachea did not allow enough air in. How could it live for 18 months, and then suddenly die because it could not get enough air in? 
7. How can a post mortem conducted 18 months after the incident determine that a blood clot prevented the bird from bleeding to death? There would be no sign left of any blood clot whatsoever. 
--Rui Gabriel Correia (talk) 01:25, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: He's not a hoax. Read the entire discussion page. It'll make sense. Galuple (talk) 02:44, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The post mortem is incorrectly cited and/or positioned in the article. The Guiness reference says that the University of Utah determined that a blood clot was involved, a week after the beheading, rather than at the time of death 18 months later. Most of the inconsistency appears to come from the Salon article.ferret (talk) 18:13, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  A few facts about these 'facts' 

message: Shouldn't the infobox say "hatched" ?  I don't know if it's possible to change that, however. StuRat (talk) 02:08, 30 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Born" ? 

message: thumb
I have a few problems with this article, first the statement: 
:"Olsen chose a five-and-a-half-month-old cockerel named Mike." 
The bird in the picture that is supposedly Mike the Headless Chicken is almost certainly female. I've put that picture here, and below it there is one of a (definitely) male chicken, note his distinct hackle, saddle, and tail feathers which "Mike" lacks. In addition, males have prominent spurs, but I fail to see any on the headless bird.
Furthermore, 
:"It is not recorded what was eaten for supper that night." 
that sounds like an attempt at a joke and I do not think that is desirable. 
:"His crowing, though, was less impressive and consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat, leaving him unable to crow at dawn.", 
Was it that his crow was less impressive, he couldn't crow at all, or is it that his crow was apparently disabled during the early morning hours? (forgive me, now I'm making bad jokes)
:"Mike also spent his time preening and attempting to peck for food with his neck."
I might believe the first statement, but the second, quite frankly, is silly.
If Mike the Headless Chicken is real (and I'm not saying he's not), this article possesses some inaccuracies. As the Crow Flies (talk) 23:34, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the supper sentence and tweaked the other sentences. I would do more except these claims sound like nonsense to me and I just don't like it. — Reatlas (talk) 13:35, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Problems 

message: Can we add this Image?
It provides Information about the everyday life of the rooster.
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/37/3797/NVYIF00Z/poster/bob-landry-mike-the-headless-rooster-being-fed-through-eyedropper-directly-to-his-esophagus.jpg
Source:
www.allposters.de/-sp/Mike-the-Headless-Rooster-Being-Fed-Through-Eyedropper-Directly-to-His-Esophagus-Poster_i5312858_.htm
--Jonas Dralle (talk) 20:43, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: It does serve to show that there ARE additional photos and disproves the accusation of photo-shopping made above.CFLeon (talk) 14:09, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Additional Photo 

message: I was going through this wiki page and found a little miscalculation in age.
Here is the text:
Born	April 1945
Fruita, Colorado, U.S.
Died	March 1947 (aged 1)
Phoenix, Arizona
- Here, (aged 1) should be (aged 2). I am not able to edit. 
Apr-1945 - Mar-1947 = 2 yrs
Please correct this if the DOB & DOD are correct as per the information.
The link for "Mike the Headless Chicken at Life magazine" - is also not working http://time.com/photography/life/curiosities/mike-the-headless-chicken/?iid=lf%7Clatest#1 
Thanks
Kallol Sarkar  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kallol.sarkar (talk • contribs) 14:42, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Why the heck did you let him live that long!?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.67.207.29 (talk) 17:10, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Age calculation seems incorrect 

message: Chickens are not born, they are hatched. Suggest you change the wording from "born" to "hatched" 110.23.252.137 (talk) 07:01, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: Due to technical reasons, it is not possible to changed this L293D (☎ • ✎) 13:12, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

text: Done —KuyaBriBriTalk 14:57, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 2 May 2018 

message: It is interesting that you would claim the change could not be made, because it can:  has "hatch_name" and "hatch_date" and "hatch_place" fields which will do what we want. I suggest that the "birth_" fields in this article's infobox be converted to "hatch_" fields. 2600:8800:1880:91E:5604:A6FF:FE38:4B26 (talk) 08:05, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Done —KuyaBriBriTalk 14:57, 29 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Edit request followup, 29 May 2018

message: On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado was planning to eat supper with his mother-in-law and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Lloyd knew his mother-in-law would be dining with them and would savor the neck. He positioned his ax precisely, estimating just the right tolerances, to leave a generous neck bone. "It was as important to suck-up to your mother-in-law in the 40's as it is today." https://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/mike/page/history. Olsen chose a five-and-a-half-month-old Wyandotte chicken named Mike. The axe removed the bulk of the head, but missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.[3][4] Petep44 (talk) 01:24, 29 August 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. L293D (☎ • ✎) 02:05, 29 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 29 August 2018 

message: the way he died on this page is incorrect he choked on a build-up of fluids and llyod did not have an eyedropper that he usually used to remove any fluid buildups due to mike not being able to swallow. Noonnothooman (talk) 17:07, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 17:17, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 1 December 2021 

message: The historical fact of the incident has long been established, and that chickens can run around decapitated isn't even rare, even with the brain-stem entirely gone. They can even 'fly', after the fashion of chickens:
:youtube: "Chickens fly headless after having heads chopped off part two.AVI Kate Hames"
The only exceptional element about Mike was the curious circumstances of the healing of the wound and the owner's unique interest and skill in feeding the creature.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by JohndanR (talk • contribs) 22:15, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Could the "hoax" nonsense please be excised from this talk-page? 

message: This article is currently inconsistent: it refers to Mike both as "he" and as "it". Sources are also inconsistent: this one uses "he" in para 1 and "it" in para 4 and at end. But it would be good if we had consistency in this article, one way or the other. PamD 07:40, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  He or It? 

message: Under the LEGACY section change "Mike the Headless Chicken Day" to "Mike the Headless Chicken Festival"
and imbed a link to their website https://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org 65.60.217.209 (talk) 13:28, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done for now: Provide secondary reliable source for  as I could see that the current supporting citation for "Mike the Headless Chicken Day" is a secondary source as supposed to primary source. For that website, we don't link external link in the body as per WP:ELPOINTS. — Paper9oll (🔔 • 📝) 05:10, 4 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 3 June 2023 

message: So is it known what happened to Mike's body? Was it preserved in a museum somewhere or eventually did the family have Mike for dinner?CFLeon (talk) 14:09, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mike's Fate?