Hi Alan
My ‘beach areas’ have one side always covered with some water and then it slopes up to some not covered in water (stones stacked on top of the basket to create a slope) right up to the rim of the pond container. My reasoning was that if a hog got into the pond, it would swim (hogs are good swimmers, just not long distance ones) until it found somewhere it could scrabble onto then it could climb up to the edge, so theoretically a smaller hog could potentially find this easier. If you want to make it extra safe, you could make sure that the container you make your ‘beach’ in has sides which any hog could get a grip on. But that is also where the brick ‘staircase’ leading up to the beach comes in. It adds to the slope and makes it easier for a hog to find the beach. I imagine a hog would swim to and round the edge and it would come upon the ‘staircase’. The brick ‘staircase’ also helps to stabilise the beach area.
Everything is so much more likely to float in water and so the ‘beach’ contents need to be quite heavy. I try to keep the pond which is sunk into the ground topped right up to the rim as an added precaution, but you could put a fairly discreet ‘ladder’ made of chicken wire as another extra precaution, or for a rustic look, a well secured branch sloping up to and over the edge. For me, where ponds and hogs are concerned you can’t have too many extra precautions!
It makes it sound as if my ponds are really big, but actually each (round) tub is only 50 cm. in diameter and I can assure you, it all fits, with room for extra baskets with native aquatic plants. I imagine the things I have suggested would be even easier in a square pond.
Hoglets vary in size but, once they are out and about, I imagine they would be able to pull themselves up as far as they could get a grip. So either a ‘beach’ or something they could grip on over the sides of the pond, reaching down into the water. I would cater for as small as possible just in case – it may not only be hogs that get into the pond.
It’s so much easier to explain if you can see it! But I don’t have the facilities to put a photo on here.
