What was awful about? I really want to know so perhaps I can avoid that aspect.
The classic thinking is that you wring a chicken's neck or chop it's head off to dispatch it...this is very sloppy and inefficient. We plan on cutting milk jugs so that they form a type of cone, then inverting the chicken so that it's head is sticking out the bottom. An upside down chicken becomes "hypnotized" and becomes very calm. The jugular is then cut and the chicken looses consciousness immediately. No flopping or mess due to the chicken being restrained in the milk jug.
I've done a LOT of reading up on the subject.
The processing I witnessed was via dull axe.
Not pleasant for anyone involved, especially the turkey!
I didn't realize you were doing your own butchering.