Seventy years ago, a farmer beheaded a chicken in Colorado, and it refused to die. Mike, as the bird became known, survived for 18 months and became famous. But how did he live without a head for so long, asks Chris Stokel-Walker. On 10 September 1945 Lloyd Olsen and his wife Clara were killing chickens, on their farm in Fruita, Colorado. Olsen would decapitate the birds, his wife would clean them
![The chicken that lived for 18 months without a head](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/738918427ada5b9526c60652d6bd8aa3c4635020/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Fnews%2F1024%2Fbranded_news%2F12345%2Fproduction%2F_85456547_headless_promo_getty.jpg)