Hi CrummyMummy
Yes, it’s best to put the entrance of the hog house facing south – so that the cold north wind doesn’t blow in! But you can put the entrance facing towards the boundary, if you wish. The shaded spinney sounds quite nice – although, of course I have no idea what it looks like! But personally, unless the hog house is covered in loads of brushwood, etc, I would try to keep it out of the sun. Being in the sun could cause quite big changes in temperature and during hibernation the hogs need to be able to maintain a fairly regular temperature. Also I suppose the hog house would still be there in the Summer when if it’s in the sun it could get pretty hot at times. (Thinking of it potentially becoming a nest for youngsters).
It doesn’t really matter if a hog house is near your house. Better of course in a place where it won’t be disturbed too much, but other than that, being near the house probably doesn’t make much difference to the hogs. Ideally you wouldn’t want it immediately next to a feeding station – partly because there may be too many other hogs around (in the Summer, at least), but also it has the potential of attracting predators.
Once you have chosen a site, it’s best to leave a hog house there for a decent length of time. Sometimes hogs won’t use a hog house until it has become ‘part of the furniture’. But I think they are more likely to use one if there is a good supply of nesting material nearby. For a hibernation nest the amount of nesting material they need is huge. Imagine how much you think would be needed to completely fill the hog house and multiply that several times. For hibernation nests, the hogs manouevre the leaves so that they are neatly overlapping and laying on top of each other, a bit like tiles – making a waterproof and well insulated structure. But they will fill the whole box in that manner. Long grasses are also useful to help weave it all together.
Good luck for a tenant, if not this winter maybe for a family later on.
