goes to bed with the chickens

goes to bed with the chickens pronunciation

/gohz tuh BED with thuh CHIK-inz/

Meaning

Means somebody turns in when the hens roost, not when the late show starts. On a farm that was just sense: work by daylight, sleep at dusk. Now it can describe any early-to-bed habit, often with a little tease. Pair it with getting up with the cows and you have the whole rural clock.

How folks use it

• “Don't call after seven. He goes to bed with the chickens.”
• “Farmers go to bed with the chickens and rise before the sun.”

Origin and etymology

Straight from barnyard timing. Chickens settle for the night at sundown, so going to bed with them meant bedtime at dark. American rural talk, strong in the South and farm country, used the line by the late 1800s and early 1900s. It stuck because everybody understood the coop schedule.

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