Flood Warning!

[Sean Regan]

The recent heavy downpours prompted me to mention this, as a bit of advice to anyone buying and positioning a hedgehog house.
There’s all sorts on the market. But we settled on this, once we had a hedghog we wanted to accommodate.

I decided although it seemed sturdy enough, it needed a baton below the floor at the front, particularly under the entrance, as all it was, was a bit of plywood.
In addition I used four rubber doorstops as feet, one at each corner.

The house sits on a small paving slab at the back of a border hard up against the side fence under some azaleas. The border itself is higher at the back than at the front. The paving slab I positioned with a slight fall towards the front so no chance of any rainwater that might blow in, pooling near the entrance.
So it will always be dry. There’s air circulation under its 2″ clearance, which will prevent rot and the base won’t freeze to the paving slab in winter.

The hedgehog has been in our garden since the end of May, when he started living under our summerhouse, but he soon found his new home and must really like it.

[Nic]

Hi Sean Regan

Yes, it’s a good idea to raise the hog boxes up off the ground a bit. I have mine with the runners resting on bricks. Hogs are perfectly capable of climbing up a brick and one can always be placed at the doorway as a ‘doorstep’.

If it is now fit and well, I hope that you are no longer keeping the hedgehog confined to your garden and have let it be free. Hopefully if it knows you have a des res there for it, it will continue to visit. But one garden is not big enough for a hedgehog. If it was a this years hoglet it will need to be able to become familiar with it’s wider habitat and be able to find suitable nesting sites for hibernation, etc.

[Author]

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