Usually their commercial feed should be the large majority of their diet. The problem with most scratch is that it is low in protein, usually around 10%, if you feed a lot of low protein food, you will get your overall protein % too low and the girls won't lay as well, and will take longer to recover from molt etc. Most Layer feed is around 16% since that seems to be where the cost of protein balances out with egg production for your average laying hen... protein is money so most commercial feeds are going to have that as low as they can and still be effective. Cracked corn is also going to be around 8-10%. You can get a feed that is higher in protein and feed more scratch / corn if you want, get a higher quality treat/ scratch / whole grain food, or just cut back on the corn/scratch.
You also don't want to get too extreme and really unbalance their diet, but if you are feeding a wide variety of foods and especially if they get to free range some, they should be fine.
Most people have a container of oyster shell available all the time, just a bowl or something near the feeder and they should be fine, the ones that need it will pick out what they want.
You also don't want to get too extreme and really unbalance their diet, but if you are feeding a wide variety of foods and especially if they get to free range some, they should be fine.
Most people have a container of oyster shell available all the time, just a bowl or something near the feeder and they should be fine, the ones that need it will pick out what they want.
