Just read your edited post. I'm not sure where you live, but for about 6 months out of the year, we don't have grass and bugs in abundance for extra birds to eat. And if I'm going to feed them properly and not just enough to keep them alive, it's going to cost money that is better spent on feeding my laying hens and securing my coops and runs better.
And frankly, there is no way to know what a chicken thinks or feels in the moments before or after decapitation or cutting the arteries or jugular veins. Just what we imagine.
If you have the time and resources to keep every rooster that comes along, more power to you. We don't all have that mindset, though. To each his own. You do your thing, but please don't condemn the rest of us for managing our flocks the way we do.
I don't believe for a minute that a chicken survived after being decapitated. The brain is what runs the whole rest of the body - respiratory, circulatory, and digestive. Once those signals are gone, the rest of the body quits working. Period. Just because you read it on the internet (or anywhere else), doesn't make it true.
Actually the story is VERY true, look up "Mike the headless Chicken". I didn't "read it online" I saw him in an actual documentary...
Mike the Headless Chicken (April 20, 1945 – March 17, 1947), also known as
Miracle Mike,
[1] was a
Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off. Although the story was thought by many to be a
hoax, the bird's owner took him to the
University of Utah in
Salt Lake City, Utah to establish the facts.
[1][2]
Beheading
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. 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]
Due to Olsen's failed attempt to behead Mike, the chicken was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily. He attempted to preen, peck for food, and crow, though with limited success; his "crowing" consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat.
[3] When Mike did not die, Olsen instead decided to care for the bird. He fed it a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper, and gave it small grains of corn.
[3]
Fame
Once his fame had been established, Mike began a career of touring
sideshows in the company of such other creatures as a two-headed baby. He was also photographed for dozens of magazines and papers, and was featured in
Time and
Life magazines.
[3] Mike was put on display to the public for an admission cost of 25 cents. At the height of his popularity, the chicken's owner earned
US$4,500 per month ($48,300 today)
[5] and was valued at $10,000.
[3]
Death
In March 1947, at a
motel in
Phoenix on a stopover while traveling back from tour, Mike started choking in the middle of the night. He had managed to get a kernel of corn in his throat. The Olsens had inadvertently left their feeding and cleaning syringes at the sideshow the day before, and so were unable to save Mike. Olsen claimed that he had sold the bird off, resulting in stories of Mike still touring the country as late as 1949. Other sources say that the chicken's severed trachea could not properly take in enough air to be able to breathe, and it therefore choked to death in the motel.
[2]
Post mortem
It was determined that the axe had missed the
jugular vein[6] and a clot had prevented Mike from bleeding to death. Although most of his head was severed, most of his brain stem and one ear were left on his body. Since basic functions (breathing, heart rate, etc.) as well as most of a chicken's reflex actions are controlled by the brain stem, Mike was able to remain quite healthy. This is a good example of central motor generators enabling basic homeostatic functions to be carried out in the absence of higher brain centres.
[6
Educator
Friend
Spirit
