MAXATAWNY, Pa. - Oh, the happy peeps of baby chickens, those ancient symbols of new life.

But the best thing about certain baby chicks now in Lehigh Valley homes is that in two weeks, they'll be back on Fleur-de-Lys Farm near Kutztown.

"It's a way for suburb kids to enjoy a baby farm animal, until it gets big and squawky," says Laurie Lynch, whose farm is renting out little birds over Easter. "When they start getting their real feathers and start looking like chickens, people don't want them anymore. But we do."

The chicks are araucanas, an unusual breed from Chile also known as the "Easter egg chicken" because they lay colored eggs in blue-green shades. Every spring Lynch orders a couple dozen or so to replace hens that stop laying.

Last year for the first time, she placed an ad in the newspaper, and rented out about 30. All chicks came back in good condition, so Lynch decided to do it again. For $30, families would get a pair of chicks, a box to keep them in, food and pine shavings for bedding.

Shipped in a cardboard box from the McMurray Hatchery in Iowa hours after they hatched, 47 chicks arrived by mail last Monday. Starting Wednesday, families with excited children began stopping by the farm's roadside stand in Maxatawny Township to pick them up.

"You get to take them home, and then you get to bring them back," explained Lynch to a family from Fogelsville.

"No!" said Bryan Sobczak, 7, already attached to a little brown piece of fluff.

"It's like a little baby, honey," said his grandmother, Jeanette Burns. "You've got to be very careful with them."

Bryan's sister, Lauren, 10, said she would wait to name her chick "until I see what it does."

"You guys are going to be their foster family," said uncle, Robert Burns. Renting the chicks had been his idea.

"Real Just Born peeps," said the children's father Tom Sobczak. "A real learning experience."

"And they're sugar-free," said their mother, Sandy Sobczak.

"This is their food," said Lynch, holding up a plastic bag of something that looked like cornmeal. "They get about one cup a day."

Lynch explained about changing the chicks' water, keeping them clean, keeping them warm by keeping a light bulb over them and the importance of hand-washing after touching.

"Come back in the middle of summer and you get a dozen eggs from your chickens," said Lynch.

Last year's adoptive families recently commented on the experience.

"The grandchildren loved them. They had a lot of fun," says David Kolde of Upper Saucon Township. "What amazed me was how fast they grew from little itty-bitty things. In 10 days, they mushroomed up."

"I think kids learned that the romantic idea of having chicks was a lot different than the reality of it. It was a lot more work than they expected," says Susan Justus of Wescosville. The chicks were loud, but cute, and her children, ages 9, 11, and 6-year-old twins, were sad to see them go.

Mike Kasprenski of South Whitehall Township said his two children, ages 10 and 6, learned a lot by taking care of the chicks. They also had a scare when a hawk swooped down and almost plucked a chick from the back yard. When his daughter, Lowe, started yelling and waving her arms, the hawk flew away, he says.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission recently urged parents not to buy young rabbits, ducks, geese or chickens as temporary Easter pets because, too often, they are afterward abandoned in parks or the wild. "Very few will become permanent pets where they are fed and kept properly," says Wendy Looker, a wildlife rehabilitator in Dillsburg, York County.

In addition to helping to prevent no-longer-wanted animals from coming to a sad end, renting out chicks benefits Fleur-de-Lys farm. Lynch says that last year's chicks grew up into very tame birds, especially the roosters.

"They are much nicer animals when they come back," she says. "They get two weeks of a lot of attention and they seem to be much more docile."

The farm's flock of 70 chickens is laying well now, and their pretty blue and green eggs are for sale in the roadside shop. Lynch calls them "range eggs," because her chickens are fed no chemicals or antibiotics, and can roam in a large pasture.

Also for sale are spring flowers and crafts, including Easter baskets lined with live wheat grass. Later in the season, berries and lots of vegetables, including some unusual French and Italian varieties, will be available. To every thing, even chickens, there is a season.