About our product
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Why is your chicken different than what I can buy in the store?
How much time have you got…? Our farming philosophy centers around a low-stress life for our birds. This means they’re happy chickens, which results in a higher quality product. We raise relatively small batches of birds and process each one by hand on-farm. This means that there is no water soak or soy-water injection, resulting in less shrinkage, better flavour and better texture. We use a locally made, vegetarian, medication-free feed, which helps our birds to stay healthy and happy. There are so many reasons why our chicken is awesome, and we love to talk to people about it. If you’d like more information, call or email us and we can fill you in!
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Do your animals get access to the outside?
Our laying hens are free range, which means they can roam freely either inside or outside. They have access to pasture and can peck around outside to their hearts’ content. Our broiler birds are free run, which means they are free roaming in the barn. These guys are a bit more fragile, so they are happier in the barn where they have heated walls and floors, lots of space to move around, filtered water, and top-quality feed. Our beef is free range and pasture raised – we have 260 acres of land, so they have lots of space to move around and graze. This helps to build muscle mass, which results in better texture and flavour to the meat.
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Where do you get your chicks?
There are two options for chicks at Dueck Falkland Farms, depending on the time of year.. We either source local eggs and hatch them on Farm, or we purchased chicks from a local hatchery in Armstrong.
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What do your chickens eat?
Our chickens eat a custom-made, locally sourced feed blend developed specifically for our farm. It is a non-medicated, vegetarian feed, and it is predominantly wheat. We do not use growth hormones or steroids at any point in the raising process.
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Where do you process the product?
All of our processing is done by hand on our own Farm. We have a state-of-the-art processing facility right on Farm, which means we do not have to ship or transport our birds. It also ensures that the birds are processed as ethically and humanely as possible.
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Where is your sausage made?
We debone all of our own chickens on farm by hand, and then make our own sausages in our on Farm Sausage Kitchen. The spices for each recipe are measured out one at a time by hand each week, so we don't use any prepackaged or prepared spices. This way we know exactly what's going into are sausages, right down to the smallest ingredient.
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Are you certified organic?
No, we have not pursued organic certification. There’s no reason that we couldn’t, but we feel that the cost of certification outweighs the benefits for our customers. We just can't find a way of certifying organic and while maintaining affordable pricing for young families. Having said that, we are fully committed to raising our animals the right way – low stress, top-quality feed, no antibiotics or hormones at any time, top-quality ingredients in our sausages.
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Are your products gluten free?
All of our products are gluten free, with the exception of our breakfast sausage and breakfast patties.
Other questions
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Where can we buy your products?
You can buy our products at our on-farm store, at our booth Kelowna Farmers’ Market, or from one of our awesome retail partners. We are just working on options for shipping, so stay tuned for that!
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Do you ship orders?
We don’t currently have an option for shipping, but we’re working on it! Stay tuned in the next few months.
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Why did you change your name from Sterling Springs Chicken?
Well, mostly because we’re not just chicken anymore. We have beef, sausage, eggs, bone-broth, bacon, and a whole bunch of other awesome products. Also, we really wanted to have our own family name on our products – it serves as a guarantee of quality. And finally, we’re so happy to live in Falkland, and we wanted our name to represent how awesome it is to live here.