It isn't easy but we have been forcing ourselves to learn to process our own chickens.  We have about 10 roosters right now, and have been slowly knocking that # down.  They are maturing and their crowing has been making for early mornings for this family.  These are the sweet chicks that we & mama hen hatched this spring.  How they have grown, into such elegant roosters! 

Our biggest (human) boy is a champ chicken catcher, he brings us a rooster and we get to business.  Like it or not it needs to be done and is good food... a couple of meat meals, and a few quarts of rich stock, the dog gets the leftovers a few times over.

But it isn't easy, it was only a couple of years ago I feared touching a chicken out of a bag from the store...

doesn't look so bad in the slow cooker with loads of lovely garden veg.