Hi rosiebubbles
That’s such good news that the badgers are no longer a problem in your garden! So you can watch the hogs without having to worry too much. So pleased for you!
Yes, it is exciting and it’s great fun watching them – better than TV quite often!
The other thing which is useful for the hogs is to leave water available all day every day. You never know when a dehydrated hog might come along desperate for drink when we aren’t there to see. Wide but shallow plant saucers are ideal – not so deep that a hoglet could get trapped in them. The ones I use are 8 inches or more across (mostly more) – hogs are very good at tipping smaller water containers over and getting a face full of water!
If you happen to have a pond, make sure that the hogs can get out. They are good swimmers, but need somewhere shallow or sloping to get out. They are also excellent climbers so even a raised pond needs to have some ‘escape’ route.
Once you have built your hog house, make sure there is plenty of nesting material in the vicinity. You could put a handful of material in the house to give them the idea, but most hogs prefer to do their own interior decorations and are far better nest builders than we would be! That is especially so for hibernation when they build really elaborate nests – strong, well insulated and waterproof. Preferred nest materials are medium sized leaves – lots of them (for a hibernation nest think how many leaves would fill the box loosely and multiply that several times – the hogs layer them like tiles, so use far more than we might think) – but also long grasses, etc.
But mostly, just enjoy the visits of the hogs. Good luck and happy hog watching!
