I feel for you! I am being terrorized by 3 bullies who follow me around, hide in the bushes and sneak up on me, and really make me scared to walk outside! I keep "rooster beaters" (aka ski poles!) strategically placed around my yard so I can defend myself. I'm trying to work up the nerve to do away with these guys.

Pressure can them. You can use the meat in soups & stews.

Chicken noodle soup. You can grind the meat for chicken patties. Learn to make home make noodles with all those eggs. I don't really know but I think that after boiling all the good stuff out there is not a lot left food value wise other than fiber. You could make dog food with it. This way you can grind bones and all. It sound terrible but if it is ground and dried it can even be fed back to the chickens.
Being the oldest grandson on both sides of the family somehow I got the unpleasant duty of putting down any animal that was to be butchered. This started at an early age. Later I raised calves for shows, They were all terminal. I still don't like it but one must realize that raising livestock is for our use. As long as the process is humane somebody has to do it. You get used to it but you will always feel bad at the same time. Somehow that duty has always been mine when it comes time. I think after more than 60 years of this someone else should be taking over.
The only advice I can give you is try and not think about it . Set a time and place and just do it.

I would NOT grind the chickens up and feed them to the chickens.

Remember, that is how Mad Cow Disease originated, not a good thing.

I really don't understand. I eat ground meat all the time. If I can eat ground chicken why couldn't a chicken? I think it was sheep by products that the cattle were fed.
Most dog and cat food will include ground chicken.
Did you know that feeding poultry litter to cattle is still done in this country today.
Did you know that the favorite meal for organic chickens raised on the farm is the fecal mater of other animals. A chicken will eat all those nasty things that make people squeamish.

I have a mean rooster. He attacks everyone - my kids, my hubby, me....and now is is attacking our neighbors. He even has flown up and "flogged" my brother in the back of his head (and his wings are even cut!)
I can't with good conscience give him away. PLUS - I had planned to raise the birds for meat at some point. And now this seems the best time for this roo.
So my husband said he would cull him. However, even though he is mean, I still love him. And I want to do this as humanely as possible and I have looked into the best way to cull him (fast) and with as little pain as possible.
I have read a bazillion posts on the different ways to do it. I have looked at other research online to support different people's opinion.
I am not confident in the axe method because of potential user error - (a few bad youtube videos have tormented me.)
So my son and my brother built a guillotine thinking that would be the "surest" method. However, when testing it on a green branch, it worked like a charm on a small one, but testing on a stick that was the size of what the neck looks like (with feathers) it only cut 3/4 of the way through. Granted the stick was green and probably bigger than the actual neck - but I just can't stand the thought of it not going completely through severing the head immediately.....AND what's worse are the threads on here that discuss how until brain activity has ceased, they can still be responsive (this possibly feel pain) for around 20 seconds after the head is severed. (I was horrified by this thought) and researched for 2 days and sadly have found research that supports this claim. Now I am REALLY a mess! (I can post the studies at different universities if you want...and if I can find them again.)
The research suggests using an anesthetic before killing. So, the topic of using Ether and it being painless (via some posters on this forum) has gotten me interested. But if I killed him with the gas I would think it would get into the meat making it unfit for consumption. However, what if I only used enough to put it to sleep and then immediately using the axe method. Would this short exposure to the gas still ruin the meat and make it dangerous to eat?
Granted, I may just need to be a big girl and do what needs to be done, but I would just like to know if I can anesthize first befoe killing (perhaps using a soaked rag for a few seconds) and then still eat the meat.
Thanks in advance for your support!

According to my cookbook "Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, volumes I & II" circa 1957, the best way to cook chicken soup is to select a "lively bird with a bright eye". From there, you hang them up by their feet (they will get pretty groggy when you do this) and then "insert" a sharp thin knife up into the groove in the top of their mouth and "pierce" their brains. This, other than making them not feel anything anymore since their brain is dead, also relaxes the feathers and makes them easier to pluck.

It actually works real well and you don't have bruised meat from the birds flopping around while dying. Tie a loop around their feet, hang them from a handy branch, sometimes I'll tie a bandana around their wings so those don't flap. Open their beak and "pierce" their brain. Then slash the throat and let the blood drain out. I'll usually hold the head by the comb so they don't swing around and make a mess. They will wiggle for a bit, but it's just lizard reflexes, their brain isn't functioning anymore. When the feathers relax in about fifteen seconds, they are ready to be plucked.