Charlie Calhoun

What are people's ideas for keeping baby chicks warm without a heat lamp?

I've tried keeping chicks in my house before, but they create a problematic amount of dust, and I'm allergic to dust. The house is the only place on our farm with electricity... the barn is too far away to run power cords. So I'm interested in non-electric methods of keeping chicks warm in a barn. I suspect deep litter isn't warm enough by itself. Using insulation and heat-reflective emergency blankets in some kind of enclosure for them may help. And of course there's seasonality to consider - it will be easier in mid-summer. Any ideas for spring though?

A friend of mine built a floating duck house not unlike yours. Unfortunately the ducks were terrified of the pond, probably because a snapping turtle lived nearby. So he brought the house back on shore and it's been sitting on the ground ever since. The other disadvantage to the floating duck house was the difficulty of gathering eggs and cleaning it out. But glad to hear it works for you.

Fortunately I got the grapevine for "free", in return for some volunteer work, at a local nursery that is committed to not using pesticides. I'm also on the lookout for scuppernongs - if I find any, that's what I'll take a cutting of.

Hello everyone,
I live in an urban area in Virginia and I have a grapevine that I'd like to plant, but there isn't a clearly obvious place to put it, so I'm seeking some advice.

Potential spot #1 is at the corner of a deck, where I would train it grow at a 90 degree angle in two directions. The south side of the deck gets the most sun, perhaps around 7 hours with a little of that being dappled sun. The west side probably gets at most 6 hours of sun, but even more dappled as the sun moves around buildings and a tree.

Potential spot #2 is by a retaining wall with a nice fence on top that ought to have something growing on it. It starts getting full direct sunlight between 12-1pm, until sunset. My concern is that the roots would have only one direction to grow (away from the wall), and they may even be strong enough to buckle the concrete wall? Don't want to cause problems for the landlord.

Thoughts?