Hi liz07
I’m probably not the best person to answer that part of your question as I’ve never had a hog hibernate in any of my boxes. They’ve only been used for short stays. But it’s probably down to how many suitable places you’ve got to put them and cost. I don’t think it can do any harm to have more than one, just bear in mind that the hogs may chose not to use either of them! They are just as likely to hibernate under a shed or as they did before we started providing boxes. Or make a nest in a feeding box. But sometimes they only start using a box after it has been there for a year or two.
Re. male/female. The other way you can tell is if you have a night cam and the hog conveniently scratches in front of it you can see a ‘blob’ on the males, vaguely mid abdomen. Or sometimes you can see underneath the hog as it moves. That method can be misleading though, so it’s probably a good idea to use behaviour to back it up.
Good luck and happy hog watching!
