I have a 3 year old EE. A few weeks ago she had a prolapsed egg vent. We worked through that and she seemed to be doing better. She has never been one to fight over who gets to eat first but she recently has not ate very much at all. She has lost weight, even more since the vent issue. I feed laying mash. Today I went to the feed store and decided to get some cracked corn for her. My reason being that if a chicken knows what plants are bad for them maybe a chicken knows that she should not eat the laying mash that will make her lay more eggs and mess up her egg vent again. Sure enough when she found the cracked corn she ate so much that she had trouble getting it to go down. I had to take her and make her drink some water. What say ye chicken masters? Do they know that the mash will make them lay more?
Not on the feed vs. corn thing. Like many kids, the chickens will choose the candy before the veggies and meat. They will eat the more palatable things when free ranging but, if confined, will eat everything.
Well, chickens are smart, no matter how stupid some people say. If u feed her the laying mash ALL the time, the corn is different, and more interesting, so they want it. I think she saw the different color and shape and knew it was something different, so she tried it. That's what I think!