what do chickens eat?

Answer 1

What Should I Feed My Chickens?
Chicken feed. People like to complicate the feeding problem beyond all reason. Go down to the feed store and buy a sack of feed that's labeled for the kind of chickens you have (chick starter, broiler starter, layer feed, etc.). This will be a balanced feed, and the chickens will do fine if you don't feed them anything else.
You can also set out whole grains in a separate feeder if you like. I do. This can save you a lot of money if you have a source of cheap grain, especially if you use a high-protein chicken feed. For example, a high-protein layer ration with 20% protein will be formulated for use with supplemental grain, with the assumption that the hens will eat about 50% layer ration and 50% grain. Chicks need lots of protein and will pretty much ignore supplemental grain until they're older and aren't growing as fast. There's really little point in offering them grain until they're 6-8 weeks old.

Answer 2

They will graze for insects in the grass, or bits of seed, normally farm raised chickens are given cracked corn, if they are layers there is an extra ingredient (probably calcium) to help them

Answer 3

Chicken scrap. Like bird seeds.

Answer 4

Free range chickens would probably eat seeds and insects.