My poor little chicks, they were so confused in the beginning. I guess sometimes everything wants a mother. We all yearn for our mothers even as adults.
To monitor the temperature of the brooder when we first got the chicks, I used a digital thermometer. It is silvery gray in color has an LED screen and is about the size of a baby chick. Well after about a day of the stranger being in the brooder with the chicks, they became friends. It was so bizarre. I watched the behavior for hours. It was Peanut who made first contact! At first, they peeped at it. It was like watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They were dedicated. They would be in the middle of eating, drinking or playing, then all of a sudden one would walk over and peep at it, staring curiously into the LED screen that was reading 90 degrees F.
The next day, they started pecking at it. That poor thermometer was getting a chick initiation. They would be in the middle of something then just run over, give it a peck a peep and be done. This went on for a couple of days. It was so entertaining to watch. Early the next morning, I peeked out into the garage with the brooder and what I saw amazed me. The chicks had accepted the thermometer as one of their own. There were the chicks, and they had knocked down the thermometer and slept with it. Amongst their soft fuzzy chick quilt made of blacks, caramels, and golden yellows was my sliver hard thermometer. They had added the thermometer to the flock.
 |
| The thermometer in her glory top right! |
