Ok, I'm still a newbie so I have to share this shame. Our chickens have holes in their heads!! I thought the ears were those thin membranes (apparently the ear drum I have so learned) on their heads. I was bothering my RIR bantam who doesn't like being held, looked at, breathed on...I was massaging her little head when the tuft of feather covering the ear hole came up and I saw this hole. I checked the other side and low and behold another tuft, another hole! Of course I checked the other chickens too. I didn't lift the other tufts, just verified that they all have tufts I didn't realize were covering their ear holes!!