I learned a bunch from Justin Rhodes. We have had egg layers for a few years now. You can throw them any scrap food, if they don't like it like citrus or onion they ignore and it'll decompose and the chickens will eat the insects and grubs and worms. We just butchered our first batch of forty meat birds, now have a full freezer and started freeze drying them after smoking. Like others have mentioned keep the cock count low, but a rooster can help protect the girls and fertilize eggs so you can keep making new chickens.