Chicken Idioms and other Funny Things We Say


We've been amazed at how many common everyday sayings originated from people who owned and raised chickens. Who would have thought that the lowly chicken was so interwoven into our everyday lives? Below are some of our favorite chicken sayings submitted by our community members, starting off with the best chicken quotes. Feel free to submit your own chicken saying in the comments.

Quotable Chicken Quotes

- “A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.” - Samuel Butler
- “I want there to be no peasant in my kingdom so poor that he cannot have a chicken in his pot every Sunday” - Henry IV
- “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” - unknown
- "Chicken one day, feathers the next” - unknown
- “We can see a thousand miracles around us every day. What is more supernatural than an egg yolk turning into a chicken?” - S. Parkes Cadman
- "Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets” - Henry Ford
- "Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.” - Chuck Palahniuk
- "Religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother of a chicken.” - Lemuel K. Washburn
- "I'll change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!" Dolly Parton's character in 9 to 5 movie
- "Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” - Frank Lloyd Wright
- "Love, like a chicken salad a restaurant has, must be taken with blind faith or it loses its flavor” - Helen Rowland
- "It is better to be the head of chicken than the rear end of an ox” - Japanese Proverb quotes
-"Ain't nobody here but us chickens" - Song lyrics, Louis Jordan
-"The Sky is falling!" - Chicken Little, childrens fable
- "Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken poop from chicken salad.” - Lyndon B. Johnson
- “The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'.”
- "A chicken in every pot" - 1928 Republican Party campaign slogan
- Don't have a pot to put it in - 1928 Democratic Party response slogan
- It's a chicken and egg situation - Which came first?
-“Chicken salad has a certain glamour about it. Like the little black dress, it is chic and adaptable anywhere.” – Laurie Colwin
-“I feel like a carton of eggs holding up an elephant.” – Sherman Alexie
-“An overcrowded chicken farm produces fewer eggs.” – Chinese Proverb
-“My mom used to call us ‘free-range kids,’ like free-range chickens. We roamed the countryside.” – William Moseley
-“As for those grapefruit and buttermilk diets, I’ll take roast chicken and dumplings.” – Hattie McDaniel
-“And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.” – Sherman Alexie
-“Life was just a tire swing—blackberry pickin’, eatin’ fried chicken.” – Jimmy Buffett
-“If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.” – Nikita Khrushchev
-“I dream of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
-“I haven’t checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates
-“What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander, but it is not necessarily sauced for the chicken, the duck, the turkey, or the Guinea hen.” – Alice B. Toklas
-"Ginger: Think, everyone, think. What haven't we tried yet? Bunty: We haven't tried not trying to escape. Babs: Hmm. That might work." -'Chicken Run'
-"The chicken came first—God would look silly sitting on an egg." - Author Unknown
-“Charles Darwin was convinced from his studies that the red jungle fowl was the only ancestor of the domestic chicken.” – Joseph Barbera
-“Chicken bones have been found in South America by paleontologists which have been dated to a century before Christopher Columbus arrived.” – David Scrivener
-“Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken of the Sea.’” – Jessica Simpson
-"Left wing, right wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me." -Woody Guthrie
-“Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.” – Susanna Moodie
-“If you eat a chicken wing or a chicken tender in some parts of the country, I probably supplied it.” – Herschel Walker
-“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets, Papa would say she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.” – Katherine Dunn
-“When arguing with a chicken, a grain of corn is always wrong.” – African Proverb
-“If you dream of becoming an eagle, you follow your dreams and not the words of a bunch of chickens.” – Penny Johnson Jerald
-“I haven’t changed. My family and I live as we did in South Spain. I’ve had loud music, chickens, birds, and a bull in my backyard.” – Charo
-“I grew up in a farming family. I hated cleaning out the chickens but loved hatching them and feeding the newborn sheep.” – Joseph Mawle
-“The difference between involvement and commitment is like an egg-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was involved—the pig was committed.” – Martina Navratilova
-“It is not unprofessional to give free legal advice, but advertising that the first visit will be free is a bit like a fox telling chickens he will not bite them until they cross the threshold of the hen house.” – Warren E. Burger
-“People will hate you, rate you, shake you, but the chicken breast will never cheat you.” – Gouse Pasha
-“Love, like a chicken salad or restaurant hash, must be taken with blind faith or it loses its flavor.” – Helen Rowland
-“You want a drumstick? Like an ice cream cone or a chicken wing?” – Billie Joe Armstrong
-“I’ve never related to the work geek at all. It sounds much more horrible than a nerd—like a freak biting a chicken’s head off in a sideshow.” – Jonathan Lethem
-“My first business deal was with my mother. I invested in chickens. I sold the eggs to my mother.” – Joel McCrea
-“The networks are not some chicken-coop manufacturing lobby whose calls nobody returns.” – Ralph Nader
-“I always get so excited cooking chicken wings.” – Jourdan Dunn
-“If you have a rural property, you may have an outbuilding that can be converted into a chicken house.” – Christine Heinrichs
-“It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.” – Margaret Thatcher
-"Ever think of what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth." - Anne Tyler
-"Rocky: Now, the most important thing is, we have to work as a team, which means: you do everything I tell you. Fetcher: Birds of a feather flop together." -'Chicken Run'
-“Peg judged the chicken pie to be satisfactory, if old-fashioned, the braised chicken flavored with nutmeg, fresh peas, and cream.” – Martine Bailey
-“I wasn’t popular in the home office because I wasn’t chicken. I’m just a risk-taker. I have gut instincts.” – Gary Gygax
-And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.” – Joyce Meyer
-“You can’t really call them evil, any more than mice can call cats evil, or chickens can call humans evil. It’s all just a matter of where you’re standing.” – Ted Naifeh
-“Do you eat chicken because you are familiar with the scientific literature on them and have decided that their suffering doesn’t matter, or do you do it because it tastes good?” – Jonathan Safran Foer

Talkative Women

"It is said that even the hen reared by a talkative woman crows." - Sinhalese proverb
Hen party - a large gathering of gossiping women
A whistling woman and a crowing hen, are neither fit for God nor men.
A whistling woman and a crowing hen are two of the unluckiest things under the sun.
A whistling wife and a crowing hen, aill call the old gentleman out of his den.
Whistling girls and crowing hens, always come to some bad end.
A whistling wife and a crowing hen, aill come to God, but God knows when.
A whistling girl and a crowing hen can drive the devil out of his den.
A whistling woman and a crowing hen will always come to no good end.

Finance (or putting your cart before your horse )​

Nest egg - to save a little money each week
Scratching out a living - to earn enough to get by on
Don't count your chickens before they hatch - don't plan on an outcome before it actually happens.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket - don't plan on an outcome before it actually happens.
Don't spend the egg money before the hen lays the eggs - don't plan on an outcome before it actually happens.
Chicken feed - small amount of money
Feather your nest - saving for the future

Chicken Jokes

What the hen said when she saw the scrambled eggs......my children are all mixed up!
Yolks on you - Jokes on you - play on words
Why'd the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum/armadillo that it CAN be done!
Which came first the chicken or the egg?

Hen Sayings

Hen house - large number of females living in the same house
Mother hen - very protective
Madder than a wet settin' hen - very angry
Fussing like an old hen - angry
Work as hard as a hen hauling wood- hard working
Hen cackle – to laugh
Laid an egg – failed
Feeling like Henny Penny – one person doing all the work
Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
A hen that struts like a rooster is often invited for dinner - pride goeth before the fall
Scarce as hen's teeth - extremely hard to find
Long long ago, when chickens had teeth - once apon a time
Chick - young girl or teenager

Roosters (get no respect!) Sayings

Hen-pecked - nagged
The rooster may crow but the hen delivers the goods.
The rooster may crow, but this hen lays the egg!
The rooster may rule the roost but the hen rules the rooster.
The rooster makes all the noise, but the hen rules the roost!
Rooster games - willing to fight instead of trying to work out a problem.

Chicken Behavior Descriptions

Flew the coop - gone
Up with the chickens - waking early with the sunrise.
Going to bed with the chickens - going to bed early in the evening.
Walking on eggshells- treading softly where certain people are concerned; trying not to upset someone
Like a chicken with it's head cut off - running around with no direction
Like a head with it's chicken cut off - depressed
Shake a tail feather - get moving
Strutting' your stuff - Showing off
Strutting around like a banty rooster - showing off
Bird brain - senseless
Dumb cluck - senseless
You're chicken! - being afraid
Sunny side up - cheerful attitude
Hard-boiled - tough attitude
Over easy - soft inside
Chicken out - not follow through
That just flaps my wattles - when something annoys you
Ruffle your feathers - something annoys you
Chicken hearted - Not brave
Chickens have come home to roost - the past is catching up with you
No spring chicken - you're old. Plain and simple.
Like a banty on a june bug - all over you
Hatch an idea - put a plan into motion
Egg on your face - caught in an untruth
Put up a squawk - argue over something
Squawking - putting up a fuss
Rule the Roost - to be the boss
Pecking order - finding your place
Cock of the walk - to be the boss
Do chickens have lips? - dumb question gets a dumb answer
Play Chicken - a stand off, who will give first
Something to crow about - exciting news to tell
Brood over it - to worry; to hover over a problem
Chicken scratch - poor handwriting
Stick your neck out - go to bat for someone else
Stuck in your craw - upset about something and won't verbalize what's going on inside you; carrying a grudge.
Cock sure - to brag
Bad egg - less than honest person; poor moral standards
In a stew - got yourself in trouble
Neither chick nor child - a childless and/or petless person
Raise your hackle feathers - visibly annoyed
Cock and bull story - tall tales and elaborate lies
Nesting behavior- preparing a home (especially pregnant women just before a baby is due)
Empty nest syndrome - depression and loneliness when children leave home
Made from scratch - made from raw materials by hand
Making chicken salad out of chicken poop - able to cobble together things without many supplies or efforts
Chickenhawks - politicians who are pro-war but declined to participate themselves
Chicken lights - tractor trailor running lights
Tastes like Chicken - to describe the taste of any number of other meats
Use everything but the crow - use it up and wear it out; made due with what you have.
hatching rooster eggs - wasting time and/or resources

Eggs

Sunny side up - cooked only on the bottom, happy yellow yolk staring at you
Over easy - flipped once and the yolk still runny
Dippy egg - Southern slang; runny yolks (often sunny side up or over easy) for dipping toast.
Hard-boiled
Cackleberries - eggs
Hen berries - eggs
Scrambled eggs - Gold trim on Naval Officers Dress Hats
Have to break eggs to make an omelet - make a mess to get something done
Not everything it's cracked up to be - disillusion
Don’t cackle if you haven’t laid - don't complain if you haven't finished your part of the effort

Chicken Parts

Pope's nose / parson's nose / dashboard - The chicken butt - the boney protrusion where the oil gland and tail feathers are located.
Cock-eyed - turned or twisted toward one side
Feet-n-feathers - the whole thing