Many have heard of Mike the headless chicken, but before he became famous there was one of Michigan. One account says it was a Leghorn and another says a Minorca. She didn't live long, but she made the papers in her day and even was mentioned in the Reader's Digest.
On November 12, 1904, Herbert V. Hughes was killing chickens for the Sunday dinner at the Belvidere Hotel in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in the United States. Hughes, proprietor of the hotel, passed a number of the now headless hens to a maid to have them cleaned and gutted... but shortly thereafter she started screaming and ran from the room. And little wonder why... an entirely headless black Minorca hen was slowing walking around the room!
Some of the Belvidere workers, in fact, made a small fortune by betting patrons a dollar that they had a live, headless chicken in the basement, then escorting their dupes to the basement to prove their claim and collect. The stalwart hen did make national newspaper headlines.
Unlike Colorado’s Mike, however, the Soo’s headless black leghorn was not awarded the dignity of a recorded name, and she lived only seventeen days before she finally succumbed.
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