Chicken ears

In the first issue of Relax Chef Michael Cortese broached the subject of chicken ears. Apparently this caused a bit of a ruckus among the non-fowl aware set so checking out the Mad Science website we found confirmation as follows.

Chickens do have ears, but they are more like ear holes.  They do not 
possess an outer ear, or pinna, as most mammals possess, but they do have 
ear lobes.  The color of the lobe does somewhat indicate the color of 
their eggs.  It is believed that the same gene that determines the color 
of the ear lobe also determines egg color.

An all white chicken has white ear lobes therefore, white hens will lay 
white eggs.  A non-specific breed of broiler hen can be one of many colors 
or multi-colored.  Their ear lobes also can be colored from near white to 
near black.  These birds will lay eggs that are nearly white to a deep, 
soft brown.  The shade of brown of the egg will be indicated by the degree 
of color of the ear lobe.  In other words, a chicken with blackish lobes 
will not lay a black egg, but it may be a deep brown.

Let the debate continue