Did you know…?
The color egg a hen will lay can be determined by her earlobes.
Yes, chickens do have earlobes! Although you cannot see their ears (they are covered with feathers), a chicken’s lobes are very prominent—they stick out from underneath the feathers and sit behind their eyes, on either sides of their head (see here for a diagram). The most fascinating aspect of the lobes is not that they have them, but that the color of a chicken’s ear lobes will determine what color their eggshell will have—a chicken with white earlobes will produce white shells, and a chicken with red earlobes will produce brown shells. There are a few exceptions: the Dorking breed of chicken has red earlobes but produces white-shelled eggs, and the Aracuana breed from Chile has red earlobes but produces green-shelled eggs. Yes, green!