Typically breeds with white earlobes lay white eggshells, and those with red earlobes lay brown eggshells
followed by
There are exceptions, like Rhode Island reds, which have red earlobes and brown eggs.
As far as I know, white=white and red=brown. It's that follow-on sentence that doesn't make sense; how can restating the same thing be an exception?
Is there someone hear with more knowledge about this?
Weirdly, this article links to another article [2] which makes a very similar statement, but instead uses the (valid) exception, "Lamona chickens have red earlobes, but their eggshells are white."
[1] http://www.raising-chickens.org/rhode-island-reds.html
[2] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141213-eggs...
Last sentence: "7. There was no evidence of any linkage between the factors for earlobe color and egg color."
My guess is that having an association between earlobe color and egg color is convenient for breeders, so they prefer chickens with corresponding colors.