Once you get the feathers picked, you need to eviscerate the chicken - pull the insides out (making sure you get all the lung tissue from between the ribs), we then rinse them in very cold water, put in Ziplocks and freeze them. Some people will let them "rest" in the fridge for a day or two, some will brine them in salt water. As far as them being "tough and unusable", I think those statements are made by people who are used to the mushy, flavorless grocery-store chickens that are raised in confinement, then butchered at 6-8 weeks old. The meat is firmer, and has flavor. The secret to cooking them is to cook them low and slow. The crockpot is your friend. These are not young fryers. They make delicious roasted chicken, chicken soup (save the broth!), chicken stew... now I'm getting hungry for chicken! Another thing to remember. If your rooster is not a "meat bird" he will not look like the ones you see in the grocery store.
My husband and I use the hatchet and stump method for our chickens. He had two nails in the stump, puts the chicken's neck between the nails and gently stretches the neck, then lops off the head. When we are doing a few of them, I will hold the chicken to stretch the neck while he does the chopping. I will put the bird in a 5-gal bucket until it's done flopping. (It can get messy, though, so be prepared for that) Then it's a matter of scalding them, picking, gutting... some will freeze them whole (that's what we do) others will quarter the bird before freezing it. When I have enough of them, I also like to bone out the chicken and pressure-can the meat. It doesn't get much better than that! Good luck!
