The layer feed does the real work
A laying hen is running a small factory: an egg most days, each one costing protein, calcium and energy that have to arrive in her feed because she cannot store much of any of them. Layer feed is blended to deliver exactly that balance, which is why it must remain the overwhelming bulk of what she eats. Treats and scraps are nutritionally random by comparison — pleasant, enriching, and fine in their place, but a hen who fills her crop at the scrap bucket will walk past the feeder afterwards, and the egg that suffers is tomorrow's. Think of scraps as seasoning on a meal, never as the meal.
A small daily share is genuinely plenty
As a working allowance, about a tablespoon or two of extras per hen per day keeps treats in their place: a small handful of mixed corn, some greens, a few mealworms, a share of vegetable peelings between the flock. That amount lets every hen have the excitement of the scatter and the foraging occupation that comes with it, without denting the day's protein or calcium. If you cannot picture the volume, err small — hens are enthusiastic actors and will perform desperate hunger at any quantity. The birds' droppings, body condition and the egg basket will tell you over the following fortnight whether the allowance is right.
What too many scraps actually do
The damage from an over-scrapped flock is slow and deniable, which is why it is so common. First the laying rate thins and shells go papery at the ends, because calcium and protein have been diluted by bread and pasta. Then the hens gain fat around the abdomen, lay less still, and are at more risk in hot weather. Kitchen waste also carries salt and fat at levels hens handle badly, and mouldy or spoiled scraps are an invitation to illness in the whole flock. None of this comes from a measured tablespoon; all of it comes from the well-meant habit of emptying every leftovers bowl into the run.
Choose the scraps that suit hens
Leafy greens, vegetable peelings and trimmings, cooked plain grains in small amounts, melon, berries and a little mixed corn are all reasonable extras. Avoid salty, fatty, processed foods, anything mouldy, raw potato peelings and dried beans, and keep citrus and strong onion or garlic scraps out of the run, since hens do poorly on them and flavours can carry to the eggs. Clean the run of uneaten wet scraps rather than leaving them to spoil where the hens scratch tomorrow.
Put the treat moment to work
Timing turns a garnish into a management tool. Scatter the day's extras in the late afternoon and the flock gets its top-up after eating proper feed all day; scatter them while calling the hens, and the treat becomes your recall signal for rounding free-ranging birds back to the run before dark. The hens think they are getting a prize; in fact they are being counted, checked over and locked up safe, which is the best kind of treat economy.
Writing the flock's daily scrap allowance into KinsLe's Care Teams, as part of the hens' feeding duty, means the limit survives the whole household's good intentions — one measured scatter a day, whoever is on kitchen duty.