Hi Fun Bobby
No you’re right – not a good idea to put a hog house too close to where the hog is building a nest. But if you have somewhere else in your garden to put one, it might be useful if that hog decides it wants to move nests during the hibernation season – they often do.
It sounds as if you have a real wild hog there who likes nesting naturally! Lucky that it has your hedge there to build it in. But the hog would probably welcome lots of medium sized leaves and long grasses left nearby. they seem to like long ornamental grasses to help weave the structure together. I usually leave a pile of cut long grasses available for them as well as the leaves. They will sometimes also use a certain amount of ‘green’ material which they will ‘pick’ for themselves.
Also if you are clearing any leaves, i.e. off lawn areas, put them in the borders/under the hedges so that the hogs are able to use them if other nests are needed later on.
But they use huge amounts of leaves, layering them a bit like tiles, so as to create a waterproof structure. The hog should know what to do with building the nest – they are much better at it than we would be! Amazing animals!
Good luck. Hope all goes well.
