We bought Kintaline, a 24 acre, small farm on the shores of the West Coast of Scotland, nearly 20 years ago, having been living in Oban for some years. The farm was pretty well derelict, and its been a lot of hard labour to bring the land and buildings back to life.
Our joint practical, stockmanship, horticultural and scientific skills have been so useful as we developed our ideas over the years.
Many trials have, and continue, to exercise us, its a stunningly beautiful and fascinating part of the world, but it can also be hard to make a living: the climate, the distance from the transport hubs, the isolation, are just some of the problems.
The passions for producing great birds, growing wonderful plants, and giving our customers the best products on the market has never waned, but sometimes practicalities prevent us from doing what we want. It seems that the breeding programme we have worked so hard for is the most recent casualty.

This will give us more time to concentrate on You - getting more productivity out of your garden, smallholding and allotments is a rapidly growing pastime in this country, particularly keeping birds for eggs and meat. But, sadly, there is a lot of misinformation being put out there, and lots of new poultry keepers becoming instant experts, selling badly designed, poorly constructed, or simply shoddy housing and equipment. Newly acquired limited knowledge is being given to those in very different situations, resulting in expensive husbandry disasters which are extremely upsetting for humans and livestock. There are plenty of national chains who are flogging birds and items with absolutely NO knowledge at all.
We have been helping people with their birds and animals for several decades, we were early to the internet so have learned a great deal about all sorts of conditions and situations around the country. We have spent a lot of time learning from some of the best stockmen and women over the years, listening to them so as to be able to develop good strong practical regimes. We are not interested in anthropomorphosising chickens and ducks, we would rather treat them with the respect they deserve -- as the fascinating species they are, and help you provide the conditions THEY need.
The birds come first with us. For the humans systems must be practical and sensible, but the birds come first.

Some of our interests, both business and personal, are obvious from the topics around this page. We hope we can help you, whether its getting set up in your garden for chickens, or railway; finding your ancestors in the parish, or filling your garden with tasty plants. We are here for you.

PLEASE CONTACT US FOR OUR WINTER OPENING ARRANGEMENTS

Directions to find us

We have very full days with our birds and plants outside, guests and customers visiting the farm, as well as email and phone customers, so we can sometimes be difficult to get hold of by phone immediately.
Please with your daytime and evening telephone numbers if you are having difficulties. We will return your call as soon as we can. The computer is always on, and email is checked many times during the day.

We welcome visitors to come and discuss their poultry, housing, electric fencing, equipment needs, we are very happy to advise you so you get a practical solution for your circumstances.
We have decades of experience, and are quite happy to say if you do not have what you need for ducks, chickens, geese etc.
Too many places are making out that all gardens, and circumstances, are fine for birds, just to sell you something. They are wrong. We would rather not sell than have you set up something that will be a nightmare within the year. However we have lots of great ideas to find solutions, we are great at thinking outside the 'box'.
If you can, bring photos of the places you want to keep your birds.

The shop is open daily and full of all sorts of goodies, as is the plant centre.

On every First and Third Thursday of the month we host the Local Producers Market here at the farm, please come and join in, but both Tim and Jill are incredibly busy all day so will not be able to stop and chat about chickens, housing etc. on market days.

Tim and Jill Bowis
Kintaline Mill Farm, Benderloch, OBAN Argyll PA37 1QS Scotland
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