what did they feed "in the olden days"?

The chickens were my aunts chore when she was growing up, she would go out first thing in the morning and feed them a small scoop of horse grains (scratch). Then let them out of the coop to free-range when she left for school. Gather eggs after school and give them a small scoop of grains in the evening to bring them back to the coop to be locked in for the night.
The chickens spent a good part of their day in the horse pen & pasture picking through the horse apples.
 
I just talked to her and she would give a scoop of horse grains only because it distracted the rooster so she could gather the morning eggs without being attacked. She used to carry a stick to protect herself from that rooster. Day he was butchered is still in her memory and he was the best chicken soup she ever ate, lol!
 
A less than ideal diet, which would have killed them if free-ranging hadn't been available, I'd imagine. Just like how people used to feed dogs table scraps and raw meat and whatever happened to be available, and how that wasn't very good dog food.
"Simple" is not necessarily good. Feeding a rabbit nothing but lettuce would be simple, but would kill that rabbit pretty quickly. The reason there are so many ingredients in chicken feed is because chickens NEED many ingredients.
 

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