Paula White
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 04/99) - Peeps, Lamp, Peeper, Clucky and Freckles are no spring chickens.

Well...actually, they are. They're newborn baby chicks and they are the newest addition to Alan and Marilyn Fehr's household.

The chicks are actually owned by the Fehr's four children: Daniel, Andrew, Michael and Matthew. The boys, who are 10, 8, 4 and 2 respectively, have taken on the responsibility of raising them. Daniel often changes their water, Andrew cleans up their cage and they all take them outside for some sun.

Marilyn got the baby chicks from a hatchery near Edmonton.

"We went down to visit grandparents and Andrew sent me with chicks on his list," she said.

Marilyn explained that Andrew first asked for baby chicks last fall. A family friend, Les Kutny, told Andrew he planned to get some. Andrew then decided he wanted some too.

"I asked my dad if I could get some, but then I wanted to get 15," he said.

Marilyn agreed to pick some up this spring. She took Michael and Matthew with her on the trip south. This turned out to be an advantage in more ways than one. The chicks were transported back to Inuvik in Michael's carry-on luggage. They were wrapped in Matthew's sweatshirt in a small carrier, with a screen on top.

"I stuck them in a sweatshirt so they wouldn't peep on the plane," Marilyn laughed. "Nobody knew I had them."

She added that her entourage of two kids, five chicks and a couple of plants left her father-in-law shaking his head.

Each of the boys has one chick they call their own, with the leftover belonging to everyone. All the chicks are female.

"We had a rooster, but he peeped too much," Andrew said.

"I left him with my mom on the farm," Marilyn finished.

The chicks will be staying in the house for the next little while because they still need the warmth of a heat lamp. But they are growing every day, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the boys.

"They can jump pretty far," Michael said, quite impressed.

"They can also fly a little ways," Andrew added, "and they have huge wings."

But the boys have also noticed the birds are different from other pets.

"They don't like playing with everything we put in (the cage)," Andrew said. "They're not like hamsters or gerbils."

The chicks will grow up to be brown hens in about two or three months. Originally, the boys had planned to make a meal out of them, but it was love at first sight, so that plan quickly changed.

Marilyn said the boys were told they couldn't keep the chickens over the winter because it's too cold. The family is going to take them back to his grandmother's farm in August.

"I'm not sure what happens after that," Marilyn said. "They'll probably be somebody's supper by then."