Hi RayGod
Sorry to hear about the badger. I would be inclined to put the urine around the edge of your garden, rather than just around the feeding area. I would also stop feeding until you are certain that the badger is no longer around. There have been some other posts about badgers recently. I will put one link here and another on a separe post afterwards (the forum doesn’t always like multiple links!)
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/advice-re-badgers/
I don’t think badgers actually hunt hedgehogs, as such, but if they have found an area where they have found food in the form of hedgehogs or otherwise, they are likely to visit again. Even if you were able to create a feeding station which a badger couldn’t access, they could still pick them off on their way to or from feeding areas, so it just isn’t safe to feed hogs with badgers around. It would be gambling with their lives. Badgers can make short work of hedgehogs. I have heard of someone who used to feed badger and hedgehog side by side (which to me sounds a crazy idea – badgers are predators, after all) and one day the badger suddenly turned on and killed the hedgehog despite there still being other food left. Very distressing for the poor person watching, who would have been able to do nothing about it.
You might be lucky and it might have been a single badger, possibly displaced from it’s previous home who is seeking a new one and is just passing through. I had one here once quite a while ago which only visited once and thankfully it never returned. But I would stop feeding the hogs until you are absolutely certain it’s no longer around. A badger is a greater risk to a hog than going without supplementary food for a while.
Good luck. I know how distressing it can be when we think the hogs might be at risk. Hope all goes well and that the badger has moved on.
