Hi AlanB
The hogs that have been around so far this year are mostly males and they do like to biff other males from time to time. (Although the females may be beginning to return now as well – which will probably make their behaviour even worse!) In previous years, I have noticed a bit of a hierarchy here, with one male that biffs just about any other male (other than the ones who are too small for him to think it’s worth bothering with!) and then some that get biffed, but do their fair share of biffing others lower down the ranks. Spacing the food is probably not going to make a lot of difference, but might work a bit in the very short term.
Re. your original questions about food. It isn’t really possible to tell numbers of hogs from how much food is eaten. Depends how much they are getting elsewhere, who else is eating the food, etc.
I wouldn’t want to encourage badgers into my garden. They may well deter the hogs from visiting. I have heard of people having hogs feeding next to badgers, but that is a very risky thing to do, because I have also heard of a badger in such circumstances turning on a hog and killing it. For the same reason I wouldn’t encourage foxes, as they have also been known to kill hedgehogs. Apparently certain foxes have learned to be quite clever about it. If your garden is well fenced, maybe you could make the entrance holes big enough for hogs but too small for badgers/foxes?
