Would/do you kill a chicken to eat?
Absolutely, I'm certainly not going to eat a chicken *before* killing it
I've done a batch of CornishX, all of which I processed myself, and also killed and et a spare chantecler last summer. I would be extra reluctant and extra sad to eat an older layer with a name and personality and history, but I'd certainly do it if necessary (if food was extremely tight, or there was no way to continue feeding the older hens and no non-soup home could be found for them).
I'm maybe a little 'different' in that the thing I have a hard time bringing myself to do is taking them to a processor rather than killing them myself. I think about how scary it would be to be crowded into a box and taken on a bumpy car ride and then have scary things happen til it is your turn... it may be harder on *me* but I'd rather process them one by one myself at home, so there is minimal worry involved for them. I probably will send this spring's red broiler batch to a processor though because I don't want to be processing a dozen of them, solo (i.e. slowly) and outdoors, during the height of fly season.
It does bother me to kill the chicken, but I think it is *supposed* to -- food or not, it's still taking a life. The actual processing doesn't bother me at all, it is really kind of interesting, like a repetitive biology lesson
Assuming I manage to hatch some eggs from our sussexes this spring, the cockerels will all (or maybe all but 1) go into the freezer.
Pat