There are a bunch of holidays in March. It starts out with a most excellent one – St. David’s Day on March 1. St. David as most everyone knows is the patron saint of Wales. He was a great guy. For example, he only drove out the bad snakes unlike another saint who has a birthday in March who drove out all the snakes willy-nilly without even trying to separate the bad from the good. The snakes left in Wales are so good that the Welsh ladies don’t holler when they see one and chase them with a broom. In fact, if they find a mouse the ladies will put them out for the snakes on a clean plate. The snakes in return will often drag the newspaper in under the door so no one has to go out in bad weather. You don’t see that sort of thing in a certain other country.
March also includes the Ides. Other months have Ides, but the only one people recall is the one in March. It involves, of course, the downfall of Big Julie. The rascal Mark Anthony and a few other despicable characters were involved – which is why you see very few people named Brutus, except maybe the character in the Born Loser comic strip. Then you had the other saint born in March who a few folks seem to know so there is no need to go into his accomplishments – although his treatment of good snakes has been noted. There is also the relatively new holiday which has been added to the March Mix. If you missed the notice, it is coming on March 19 and is known as National Poultry Day.
I have always wanted to know more about poultry especially when it comes to eggs. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that our grandkids did not want to eat The Blonde in the House’s waffles because they were not round. Well, The Blonde has a similar affliction in that she will not eat brown eggs! Her position is that she was raised on white eggs, and if the white ones were good enough for her family, then she would stick with the white. I do recall that when I was nine or ten that my mother and dad had some chickens. The chickens were Rhode Island Reds and they laid brown eggs. I didn’t think much about it, but I did find myself wondering why chickens from Rhode Island would lay brown eggs while a friend had chickens from Pennsylvania who laid white eggs.
Well, the new holiday gave me some insight to my age-old problem as I never received a good answer to my Rhode Island Red example. I have found that there is absolutely no difference in the goodness of the eggs no matter the color. I try to be prepared for what comes in life. Thus, to be ready for the new holiday (the 19 is almost on us) I did some research. If you want to buy some chickens and you have a wife who won’t eat brown eggs, then it is obviously necessary to buy the right type of fowl. Most people probably know that Rhode Island Reds are out – especially those who live in Rhode Island. The question then is how can you be certain that your chicken will lay the right color eggs? The answer is very easy to discern. If the chicken has white feathers and white ear lobes it lays white eggs. If it has reddish feathers and red ear lobes it lays the brown eggs. I am not certain what you would do if you found one with white feathers and red ear lobes, but personally I would just keep checking until I got the right combination.
Luckily, I live in an area where I can’t raise any kind of chickens, but for those who do, the above should be of great help.
I will admit that sometimes I get a sneaky thought on what would occur, if I bought some brown eggs for Easter and colored them to disguise the shell and gave them to The Blonde to eat. Then I think about possible repercussions if the inside of the shell is brown and is a giveaway. In the past, I have just given her for Easter chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick which she loves.
Even if they are brown!
Barry Evans is a columnist for Villages-News.com.