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If you read some old textbooks or pamphlets, you'll see that those that were in the chicken business planted feed for their chickens. There were various recommendations for planting and different strategies for different times of year. The usual goal was to use the minimum acreage to support the maximum number of chickens.
Those who kept chickens for family use would usually feed table scraps combined with the same feed used for their other animals. A high percentage of those families would have cows, goats, sheep, etc. Practically all of them would have had horses. All those animals means spilled feed as well as lots of manure that invites bugs and other things yummy to chickens. Most of these families would have had a garden, so would have had vegetables that damaged or iffy. Since many "family" chickens would have largely foraged for themselves while ranging free around the house, it may not have taken much supplementation at all
