…. who feeds a headless chicken?

A drabble is a very short story of exactly 100 words. Feel free to join in and write your own drabbles on Fridays and tag them with “friday drabble” and on Twitter with the hashtag #fridaydrabble.

Headless Chickens

“Can chickens live after they’ve had their heads cut off?”

That was the question I asked my students. We were discussing the believability of common expressions.  Everyone had heard stories of chickens running about after being beheaded. Most students answered yes but no one expected the real life example that followed the explanation.

A farmer in 1945 started feeding his headless chicken with an eyedropper when he realized that the chicken was not dead. Apparently if the brain stem is not cut away the chicken’s reflexes and internal organs continue to function. This chicken lived for another eighteen months.

Crazy!