The short answer for a Leghorn that gulps her feed
A Leghorn chicken that eats too quickly suits foraging puzzles: scratch grain scattered through deep litter for digging, a rolling dispenser that releases a few seeds each time it is pecked and pushed, and a whole cabbage or vegetable piece hung at head height so the hen must tear off beak-sized pieces. Chickens do not use feeders the way mammals do — the puzzle for a Leghorn is always about making her search, scratch, and work for scattered food instead of standing at a full pan.
Why Leghorns bolt feed at the pan
A Leghorn is one of the most active, flighty laying breeds, with a forager's metabolism and a flock animal's urgency. At a single crowded feeder, hens eat in rank order and a Leghorn lower in the pecking order grabs fast before she is chased off, while a dominant hen bolts to defend her place. Either way the crop fills in minutes with barely broken grain. That speed is a mismatch with how a chicken is built to eat: small pecks taken across the whole day, ground up gradually with grit in the gizzard, with the crop metering food through steadily.
Foraging puzzles that fit a Leghorn's behaviour
Deep-litter scattering is the cornerstone for a Leghorn: throw her scratch portion through the bedding of the run rather than into a dish, and she will spend an hour scratching and turning litter for grains a pan would have delivered in a minute. A rolling dispenser — a closed container with holes that drop a few seeds when pecked and nudged — adds a moving target that suits this breed's energy, and works best on a hard, clean surface where the seeds show. A hanging vegetable skewer or a cabbage on a string at just above head height makes the hen jump, tear, and take small pieces, and it keeps the treat off the ground where the flock tramples it. Finally, split the main ration across two or three small stations around the run; for a Leghorn flock, removing the crowd at one pan often slows eating more than any single device.
Running the puzzles through a laying hen's day
Offer the Leghorn's puzzle portions as part of her normal feed, with the complete ration still available in measured amounts at the stations, because a laying hen's nutrition cannot ride on games alone. Scatter the scratch in the morning when the flock is most active, hang the vegetable piece for the midday lull, and roll the dispenser out on the cleanest patch of run so seeds are found rather than buried. Keep access to grit constant, since a hen working whole grains out of litter needs it to grind what she finds. Retire any dispenser with cracks, because hens peck fragments loose and swallow plastic along with the seed.
Watch-outs for a hen that eats too fast
The crop tells the story with a Leghorn: it should fill and empty steadily, and a crop that still feels full and doughy first thing in the morning, before feeding, is a sign food is not moving through as it should. A hen that bolts feed and then goes quiet, stops laying, passes undigested grain, or loses condition despite eating eagerly needs a vet visit rather than a harder puzzle. Choking is uncommon in hens, but a bird gasping or shaking her head repeatedly after gorging at a pan should be checked promptly too.
Sharing the flock routine at home
Backyard flocks usually have one person who knows the system and several who fill in, and a helper with a full scoop undoes a week of foraging setup in one feed. Writing the scatter amounts, station layout, and hanging-vegetable routine into the flock's KinsLe notes through Family Sharing means whoever feeds the Leghorns reproduces the slow, spread-out setup instead of the crowded pan.