Hickety Pickety My Black Hen Lyrics
A proud black hen lays eggs, and gentlemen visit every day to see what she has laid. Hickety Pickety is a short farmyard rhyme that little ones love to cluck along to.
Hickety Pickety My Black Hen
Hickety, pickety, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen;
Gentlemen come every day
To see what my black hen doth lay.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/hickety-pickety-my-black-hen/
- Type
- Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 1 to 5 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Hickety, pickety, my black hen | Tuck your hands in your armpits and flap like a hen. |
| She lays eggs for gentlemen | Crouch down and pop up holding a pretend egg. |
| Gentlemen come every day | Walk your fingers along your arm like visitors arriving. |
| To see what my black hen doth lay | Peek into cupped hands as if looking at a nest. |
What Does Hickety Pickety My Black Hen Mean?
On a farm, a good laying hen was something to be proud of, and eggs were valuable enough to sell. The rhyme shows off a hen so good at laying that important visitors come every day to see her eggs. "Doth" is old English for "does".
Some later versions add a counting line, "sometimes nine and sometimes ten", which turns it into a counting rhyme.
History and Origin
The rhyme was part of English nursery collections in the 1800s and appears in The Real Mother Goose (1916). "Hickety, pickety" is nonsense sound, chosen because it clucks along like a hen.
Learning Activities
- Egg count: hide plastic eggs and count how many the black hen laid today.
- Farm visit: if you can, visit a farm or a neighbor with chickens and look for eggs.
- Brown or white: compare brown and white eggs and talk about how different hens lay different colors.