I can't wait to learn how this one turns out. Ben and I were just looking at Dark Cornish in the catalog. We figured feed costs would be too big a drawback, but pasturing would solve that one!

We will definitely keep you posted! From what I've read, Dark Cornish doesn't sound like a good broiler choice if you're going to be paying for most of its feed, but if you can find a way to put it out in the semi-wild, it might be just the ticket.

Most people go for Cornish crosses for broilers in more conventional settings. They do bulk up fast and probably give you the most meat for your feed money. There are a bunch of heirloom breeds that are midway between Cornish crosses and Dark Cornish in terms of their feed to meat ratio. I'd love to hear about what you decide to try and how it goes!

This sounds like a very interesting topic. Years ago we bought some Dark Cornish for that reason. I believe I only had 2 females and 1 male but that male was a mean one. His colors were very pretty, especially in the sun, and he kept very good care of his ladies. I do believe he could have killed a fox too. I think we got tired of being attacked so the poor fellow ended up in the tackle box (actually, only his feathers) for future fly tying and that ruined the experiment. However, I'll bet yours will work out fine. I will be interested to hear about how this goes. Some more kindred spirit confirmation.

Ours had better not be mean! Hopefully, with over a dozen males to choose from, we'll be able to pick a relatively nice one as the keeper and eat all the mean ones. Fascinating that you'd given them a shot --- I'd never heard of them before I started researching.

Oooh, I can't wait. Maybe it will help reduce my chicken coveting problems. Nah, it will probably make it worse.

I couldn't wait either...until, that is, I woke up extra early this morning thinking, "Ack! Chicks coming in just a few days! We have to figure out a brood box, etc!"

By the way, I didn't comment, but I loved your most recent post on mushrooms over on your blog!!

That's just like me too. My husband made me promise (after doing this to him once) that I'd never get chicks or the like until he had the stuff built for them that they needed. However, Anna, you are so handy with tools that this is probably not an issue. I need to learn them too.

I heard a cute story about chicks last year when we met a fellow who told us about his first batch of chicks about 20 years prior. He had prepared a nice coop for them with straw and the like. I think he had a little drip watering system for them as well. After getting them all settled in he went out for the evening. When he came home he went to check on the chicks and something had happened with his watering system whereby all of the little chicks were soaking wet and floating around. He took them all out and put them on the lid of his wood stove (not too hot), dried them off, flipped them over, and to his great surprise, they all lived. I thought that was such a cute story.

Well, I probably could have made a brood coop, but not in the 15 minutes after the post office calls up and tells us our chicks are here! It's awfully easy to assume we can pull it together at the last minute, but I'm glad we're prepared.

That's a great chick story. I hope our chicks are that resilient (but don't have to deal with any traumas!