10 or 20 is really a great way to start with it. See if you like it. Even just try 5. Order them (Cornish cross, aka CX) or pick them up at the feed store, get them to the feathered out stage in a brooder (lamp, feeder, waterer), which takes about 4 weeks. Get them on the grass in a good and safe tractor, and start culling at 6 weeks, taking the weakest ones. By 8 weeks it isn't uncommon to have finished birds that weigh 5.5-6.5 pounds.

My kids are in 4H for chickens. We have a dozen laying hens, and just did our second round of raising meat birds. Several families from the 4H group went in on doing meat birds at the same time, each only raised 6-10 birds. Then we rented the full set of processing equipment from the Pierce Conservation District. It's only $20 during the week and $35 on weekends. If you either do a bunch of your own birds, or get others to go in on it with you, the cost is minimal per bird. And having a commercial quality plucker is awesome! We hosted the butchering at our place in Spanaway and the full process of setting up, butchering, and tearing down took about 3 hours to do a few dozen birds. That's on the slow side because all of the other families had not done it before, so my wife was teaching as she did it. I was at work, and just got to come home to a bunch of processed birds!
BTW, many people like to put their birds in a very light brine for a short time after processing, then bag them and put them in the refrigerator for a day before freezing. Makes them a little more tender.

We don't plan on doing it again for a while, probably in late summer / early fall, but maybe you could join the group next time if you're interested. The birds we just did are ready to butcher at 12 weeks and ran 7-8 lbs in the bag, with the biggest being over 9. Let me know if you want the contact info for the Pierce Conservation people and I'll get it from my wife - the butcher!

Nice results Chip. That first time you pluck birds in the plucker is a sight to be seen.

Thanks.
Definitely worth getting the good equipment, we ended up with birds that looked store-bought clean. Several years back my sister's family raised about 60 chickens and we helped with butchering. They got hold of a different type of plucker, one that was designed as a small (12"?) horizontal drum with rubber fingers. You had to manually hold the bird and rotate it around as the drum spun, and we learned a lot about scalding the birds just right to be able to pluck them vs having the skin ripped off.... The commercial plucker is 10x better than that first manual thing we used.

The breed we raised was one that I had never heard of before - Freedom Rangers! They worked out really well, my wife liked them better than the Cornish X we did before. She said they were just "cleaner" birds in general, weren't very noisy (we live in a normal housing development w 1/4 acre), and they were pretty friendly with our young kids. They are known to free range a lot so eat less feed, so says my wife....

We raised Guinea fowl to eat and still have chickens for eggs. We made more selling the guinea chicks, $3.50 each, than it was worth to grow them out. They taste great but grow slow compared to those fat white chickens you kill at 10-12 weeks. My friend has a plucker that is the size of a washing machine tub that made it easy, but honestly, it's cheaper if you even consider your time being worth anything, to get them from a farmer you know butchered.
That said, we figured out how to use his plucker to pluck wild ducks and geese. A much better use of my time to put fowl in the freezer by my estimation.
Finally, there are classes put on by preppers, feed stores and others, that are free, and will take you through the whole process if you insist on doing it.
There is a great deal of satisfaction in eating something you created, and know how pure and nutritious it is. I just find it more satisfying to kill something, take really good care of it, and eat it. Not everyone wants to, or has the opportunity to live on all wild meat like we do. Farming is the next best thing.

We just processed 12 Cornish X between the wife and me plucking by hand after a quick scald. Took ~ 40 minutes (our first time really since I was a kid). Got another batch on the grow cycle.

Used a trimmed traffic cone and slit the necks under the 'ears' - sure beat lopping the head clean off. Much less thrashing about and we use the blood for blood meal fertilizer.

Chicken tractor is the way to go. Total cost is about the same for Safeway birds. Way more flavor in our birds.

We like to combine a long cooling period in brine so the birds are brined and more juicy. About 36 hours in an ice/brine bath before bagging. Also gives the meat time to age and rigor to pass so the meat is much more tender.

Cornish X are messy lazy birds (actually just too heavy to move effectively so not really lazy) and the chicken tractor keeps them away from the other chickens - the totally will smother and crush the other birds.

Not really cost effective but better quality meat and it is good for the kids to learn where food really comes from.

We will probably get a plucker if we can find a decent used one. I'm a fan of just skinning but defer to the wife/kids as they like a crispy skin.

I've seen these made using garden hose segments, air nipples from tires, bungee cords cut in half, and rubber air hose. The more rubbery, the better.

I believe you can buy the rubber nubs that are made specifically for the professional machines as well. The machine itself isn't that difficult to figure out, using scrap parts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMydVdwmuws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvr9DHSpNoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4nAKYoD3Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozNNlrT_QUY

Thanks. I've seen a couple of those vids and also found the 'nubs' on amazon. I don't seem to have the right scrap materials to coalesce this thing so I'll probably just find a used one. I need one big enough for turkeys.

As to OP question ...

I found a guy (have not used him so cannot comment much) that will process in site). Price is $100 plus $16 a bird for Turkey's so total no go as far as I'm concerned.