Commercial feed?

[keatonskeets]

If your chickens free-range for about 12 hours a day, Do they NEED to have commercial feed? I want them to be healthy, happy chickens and I just want eggs. Would it be fine to feed them grains, eggshells, kitchen scraps, etc... ?

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

That's what ours get!

And they're just fine. Right now they're pigging out on the leftovers from the garden, and the low hanging limbs on the fig tree. Oh and some hard buscuits from yesterday's breakfast, along with the leftover rice and some potato flakes that some bugs got into

 

[farrier!]

I am feeding mine a bit twice a day. I like them coming when I call and we seem to have a lot of birds...

I am not sure if there is enough food for them with just free ranging so how much commercial feed I give depends on how hungry they seem to be over a few days.