# Kid's song: 'a chicken when it's pippin' Huh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457 "2003-12-02T06:31:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/1 "2003-12-02T06:31:24Z")
My son has a CD of kid’s songs. There’s one song, called [The Riddle Song](http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/songs/tsongs/the_riddle_song.html) that contains this question and answer: Q. How can there be a chicken without a bone? A. A chicken when it’s pippin’, it has no bone. Um, okay. What the heck does that mean? My dictionary defines ‘pipping’ as the act of a chick emerging/pecking it’s way out of an egg. But chicks certainly have bones, no? In [another](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138789&highlight=chicken+pippin) SDMB thread, a poster speculates in passing that this means the chicken is still an egg, thus no bones. Not sure if they were yolking. What’s the straight dope? ---
**Author:** ![Extraneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/0ea827/32.png) [@Extraneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Extraneous)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/2 "2003-12-02T06:49:14Z")
What I heard: “pippin” is/was the embryonic stage of of the chicken (yes, the yolk) p.s. - “a baby’s when it’s sleeping” is, to my mind, a reference to a stillbirth - not exactly something a kid should be thinking about - or is it? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/3 "2003-12-02T09:07:02Z")
Sometimes sleeping is just sleeping. I’m sure they mean, when the chick is too undeveloped to have bones. Pippin’ (hatching) may no be exactly correct, but it points your mind in the right direction. And “too undeveloped to have bones” doesn’t scan. ---
**Author:** ![mayzee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@mayzee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mayzee)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/4 "2013-03-03T03:40:03Z")
Pipping is the term used to describe what a chick does when it makes a hole in its shell before it hatches. At this point, the chick’s bones have not yet hardened. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/5 "2013-03-03T18:54:01Z")
> [@mayzee](#): > > Pipping is the term used to describe what a chick does when it makes a hole in its shell before it hatches. At this point, the chick’s bones have not yet hardened. Then why do they taste so crunchy? ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/6 "2013-03-04T20:12:58Z")
I always thought it was “picken” as in the meat stripped or picked from the bones. Huh. Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![angelwins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@angelwins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelwins)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/7 "2017-12-25T01:57:27Z")
> [@Extraneous](#): > > What I heard: > > “pippin” is/was the embryonic stage of of the chicken (yes, the yolk) > > p.s. - “a baby’s when it’s sleeping” is, to my mind, a reference to a stillbirth - not exactly something a kid should be thinking about - or is it? The explanatory lines of the song are: Peaches when they’re blooming, they have no stone, A chicken when its pipping, it has no bone, The story of love, it has no end, And a baby when its sleeping has no cryin’ So, the baby is very much alive, just sleeping and not crying. It really is a lovely little song. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-song-a-chicken-when-its-pippin-huh/216457/8 "2017-12-25T02:30:52Z")
[smashes guitar] …sorry.