Good for you for being responsible to your hens and getting rid of the roosters. It's never easy to take the life of something. We raise chickens for eggs and meat and I still hate butchering day. We've been doing it for over 20 years. Once the head is off, it's not so bad. It's the taking a live chicken and turning it into a dead one that I hate. But we have chosen this, so this is what we do.
I would go to the Meat Birds section of the forum and look around. There are a lot of different ways of doing it. My husband and I use the hatchet and stump method. We feel that's the most humane way of doing it as the chicken is killed instantly. If I were alone, I'd use the cone method. Hang a cone from a tree or something, put the chicken in it (some people duct tape their wings) with head and neck sticking out of the cone. Using a VERY sharp knife, slit the jugulars on either side of the throat and let it bleed out. They are dead within minutes, not as much flopping. They will usually flop no matter how you kill them - they're not still alive when this happens, it's just the nerves firing. The most important thing is to do it as quickly as possible. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes for you!
