Just enter 'headless chicken' into google's search engine and it will give you several sites to goto to the story and pic's of headless Mike the chicken and the story behind it.

Well, the answer is in your question. "The headless chicken was fed and watered directly into it's gullet with an eye dropper."

If a President can survive two terms without a brain then a chicken can easily manage 18months with no head.

I'm not exactly sure of the proper name, but there were some nerves that were not severed, so the chickens body had no idea there wasn't a brain attatched to it.

the brain stem of a chicken is slightly differant, the lower functions such as breathing heartbeat regulation are in the lower brain stem which is not severed. As long as the wound healed and the chicken fed it would survive. Much in the same way politicans have their brains removed and they still function. That usually includes the removal of the backbone too.

I haven't had Head in weeks and I'm surviving.

the reason it survived is because the breed of chicken was the cordon bleu, which means they are born with substsantial amount of cheese and ham in them so in extreme situations for example having its head chopped off its body will automaticly feed off the chesse and ham to generate life and nurishment for the chicken and by adding water this keeps the cheese and ham hydrated so it keeps in constant supply

"Mike the Headless Chicken (April 1945 – March 1947), also known as Miracle Mike, was a Wyandotte rooster that lived for 18 months after its head had been mostly cut off. Thought by many to be a hoax, the bird was taken by its owner to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to establish its authenticity." "On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen chose a five-and-a-half month old cockerel named Mike, but failed to completely decapitate the bird. The axe missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact. Despite Olsen's botched handiwork, Mike was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily; it even attempted to preen and crow, although it could do neither. After the bird did not die, a surprised Mr. Olsen decided to continue to care permanently for Mike, feeding it a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper; it was also fed small grains of corn. Mike occasionally choked on its own mucus, which the Olsen family would clear using a syringe. When used to its new and unusual center of mass, Mike could easily get itself to the highest perches without falling. Its crowing, though, was less impressive and consisted of a gurgling sound made in its throat, leaving it unable to crow at dawn. Mike also spent its time preening and attempting to peck for food with its neck. Being semi-headless did not keep Mike from putting on weight; at the time of its partial beheading it weighed two and a half pounds, but at the time of its death this had increased to nearly eight pounds." "In March 1947, at a motel in Phoenix on a stopover while traveling back home from tour, Mike started choking in the middle of the night. As the Olsens had inadvertently left their feeding and cleaning syringes at the sideshow the day before, they were unable to save Mike. Lloyd Olsen claimed that he had sold the bird off, resulting in stories of Mike still touring the country as late as 1949. Other sources, including the Guinness Book of World Records, say that the chicken's severed trachea could not take in enough air properly to be able to breathe; and therefore choked to death in the motel. Post mortem, it was determined that the axe blade had missed the carotid artery and a clot had prevented Mike from bleeding to death. Although most of its head was severed, most of its brain stem and one ear was left on its 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." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken