Hi Paul
I don’t think it will hurt if you get a box, as an alternative to under the decking – although the cats shouldn’t bother the hogs. The main problem with cats normally is that they eat the food put out for the hogs!
It probably differs hugely how long it takes people to get a hog house. Some are really keen and get one as soon as they see a hog and others take a while. But some hogs don’t take to a house until it has become part of the surroundings i.e. sometimes years, whilst others will move straight in.
But a hog box is just a structure like any other possibly more natural ones within which hogs can make a nest or choose to spend the day. Some hogs do seem to like staying in boxes (sometimes a bit too long!), but others, as alnat mentioned may only stay a day or two. But one hog will sometimes intermittently use the same box. But in the wild, even if they made an actual nest, they tend to move nests – even apparently during hibernation time. Probably a good tactic to avoid the build up of parasites.
The thing is, you don’t know when someone new might remove the decking as well. But I suspect Hubert will have other potential nesting/sleeping sites in other gardens. But maybe the new people will become interested in hedgehogs too. That would be good!
