Day 319.

Bush eggs: none. Nest box eggs: none. Feed hopper: three-quarters full. Weird thoughts about death: WAY too many.

Is neck wringing better than neck chopping? Who can say? It’s not like any chicken has really survived to tell the story. I have NEVER seen and never WANT to see a neck chopping. I’ve heard stories where the head gets chopped off but through inner strength and belief in a higher power the body lives on! Not for very long, and apparently the headless body flaps around in a most undignified though amazingly deft manner. But it makes you wonder how necessary the head is on some chickens.

At Unipeck, while I was supposed to be reading about Applied Physics In Egg Laying I instead read about ‘Mike The Headless Chicken’. Apparently being a surplus rooster his head was chopped off with an axe but Mike lived on!! He became the talk of the town and joined a circus where people would pay big money to see him bumbling around. Weird and disturbing.

The ballad of Mike the Headless Chicken by Ruby
Mike the Headless Chicken
The silliest thing on earth
But being in the circus show
Gave him financial worth

Mike the headless chicken
Made money that was finger lickin’!

It started one fateful day
When Mike should’ve lost his head
Maybe the farmer was short-sighted
As Mike lost his face instead

Mike the headless chicken
Made money that was finger lickin’!

Gone was his beak, and brain
His eyes, his nose, his comb
But despite these great loses
About the U.S. Mike did roam

Mike the headless chicken
Made money that was finger lickin’!

25 cents got you a peek at Mike
Being fed and strutting around
But after 18 months he choked
And lay still upon the ground

Mike the headless chicken
Made money that was finger lickin’!

No more Miracle Mike sadly
The bank would truly be sad
But he’s inspired a Colorado festival
That’s apparently not half bad

So Mike the headless chicken
Still makes money that’s finger lickin’!


I think if I had a talent manager we would be humming that little ditty all the way to the bank!