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The chickens I'm smoking are 5-6 lb birds. 6 will be cut up and is our contribution to the food table. 2 will be vacuumed sealed and placed on the drawing table. The birds cost me $5-6 each, on top of that there is the cost of the sugar, salt, spices for the brine, the mesh bags and the pecan wood chips for smoking, the vacuum bags for packaging, and lastly the cost of electricity to run the smoker which has 2 heating elements and 2 fans for 12 to 14 hours. It takes about 2 hours to prep the birds for the brine, then about an hour to get them dried and into the smoker. Once there the smoke pan needs to be replinished about every 1 1/2 hours. Finally after 12 to 14 hours of smoke/cooking they have to be cooled and packaged, another 2 hours of time. Needless to say pricing them at $15 is not a money making proposition.