If you're processing your own, I'd recommend only raising 10 the first time around. I'm incredibly slow: even after processing quite a few, it takes me 45 minutes to completely process a single bird, and that's with hubby wielding the axe. I agree, if I could find some one good to process for me I think it'd be well worth the cost. By the time I do the set up and clean up, then have to deal with the attendant mess of feathers and guts, and the attracted flies... It might be worth it to pay someone! I think of all the things I'd rather be doing on a nice summer day... floating across the lake in my kayak, being at the top of the list... instead of being up to my elbows in chicken guts.