diff --git a/lib/bb/cooker.py b/lib/bb/cooker.py
index 2bb80e330d3..0761f06e1ce 100644
--- a/lib/bb/cooker.py
+++ b/lib/bb/cooker.py
@@ -1998,8 +1998,9 @@ class ParsingFailure(Exception):
         Exception.__init__(self, realexception, recipe)
 
 class Parser(multiprocessing.Process):
-    def __init__(self, jobs, results, quit, profile):
+    def __init__(self, jobs, jobid_queue, results, quit, profile):
         self.jobs = jobs
+        self.jobid_queue = jobid_queue
         self.results = results
         self.quit = quit
         multiprocessing.Process.__init__(self)
@@ -2064,12 +2065,15 @@ class Parser(multiprocessing.Process):
                 if self.quit.is_set():
                     break
 
-                job = None
+                jobid = None
                 try:
-                    job = self.jobs.pop()
-                except IndexError:
+                    # Have to wait for all parsers to have forked
+                    jobid = self.jobid_queue.get(True, 30)
+                except (ValueError, OSError, queue.Empty):
                     havejobs = False
-                if job:
+
+                if jobid is not None:
+                    job = self.jobs[jobid]
                     result = self.parse(*job)
                     # Clear the siggen cache after parsing to control memory usage, its huge
                     bb.parse.siggen.postparsing_clean_cache()
@@ -2082,6 +2086,7 @@ class Parser(multiprocessing.Process):
                     except queue.Full:
                         pending.append(result)
         finally:
+            self.jobs.close()
             self.results.close()
             self.results.join_thread()
 
@@ -2134,13 +2139,13 @@ class CookerParser(object):
 
         self.bb_caches = bb.cache.MulticonfigCache(self.cfgbuilder, self.cfghash, cooker.caches_array)
         self.fromcache = set()
-        self.willparse = set()
+        self.willparse = []
         for mc in self.cooker.multiconfigs:
             for filename in self.mcfilelist[mc]:
                 appends = self.cooker.collections[mc].get_file_appends(filename)
                 layername = self.cooker.collections[mc].calc_bbfile_priority(filename)[2]
                 if not self.bb_caches[mc].cacheValid(filename, appends):
-                    self.willparse.add((mc, self.bb_caches[mc], filename, appends, layername))
+                    self.willparse.append((mc, self.bb_caches[mc], filename, appends, layername))
                 else:
                     self.fromcache.add((mc, self.bb_caches[mc], filename, appends, layername))
 
@@ -2159,22 +2164,26 @@ class CookerParser(object):
     def start(self):
         self.results = self.load_cached()
         self.processes = []
+
         if self.toparse:
             bb.event.fire(bb.event.ParseStarted(self.toparse), self.cfgdata)
 
+            self.toparse_queue = multiprocessing.Queue(len(self.willparse))
             self.parser_quit = multiprocessing.Event()
             self.result_queue = multiprocessing.Queue()
 
-            def chunkify(lst,n):
-                return [lst[i::n] for i in range(n)]
-            self.jobs = chunkify(list(self.willparse), self.num_processes)
-
+            # Have to pass in willparse at fork time so all parsing processes have the unpickleable data
+            # then access it by index from the parse queue.
             for i in range(0, self.num_processes):
-                parser = Parser(self.jobs[i], self.result_queue, self.parser_quit, self.cooker.configuration.profile)
+                parser = Parser(self.willparse, self.toparse_queue, self.result_queue, self.parser_quit, self.cooker.configuration.profile)
                 parser.start()
                 self.process_names.append(parser.name)
                 self.processes.append(parser)
 
+            for jobid in range(len(self.willparse)):
+                self.toparse_queue.put(jobid)
+            self.toparse_queue.close()
+
             self.results = itertools.chain(self.results, self.parse_generator())
 
     def shutdown(self, clean=True, eventmsg="Parsing halted due to errors"):