The situation with "our" hedgehog, is that it will be in competition with the many birds for any invertibrates at this time of the year as they will be nesting and having young to feed. The fact that I initially found him collapsed on our front lawn, meant that he would have to have got there by crossing the road or walking round from gardens on either side as there is a post and panel fence to the side of our drive and a strong 4ft wire fence on the other. So obviously "no road sense." In any event our back garden is only 85ft in length and its width is just 18ft for two thirds of it and 30ft for the remainder. So there's a limit to what it will find. I'll eventually stitch drill a hole in a base panel of our side fence, so that it will be able to get into the garden next door, should it choose to do so. At the moment it's confined to our back garden, because we've this security fence and door between the corner of the house and the garage. Few other houses are like this. I think it best to "build him up for the moment," he's clearing a sachet of Sheba plus some suet pellets and dried mealworms nightly, before we let him "do his own thing" as we should.
Hmm.. An update. I told my wife my plan for the hedgehog. "When are you going to drill a hole in the fence?" "I thought in two or three weeks time." "That's too soon, he's still very small." "When then?" "Maybe next year." "Doh!"
'arry's 'ouse will be arriving later this week. The problem is, where to put it. Ours is a small and tidy garden, no piles of leaves or hidden corners. The only place it could go is at the right-hand end of these azaleas to the side of the patio. I can put it hard up against the fence and encourage the euonymus to give it more cover. I don't expect him to use it like a dog kennel, but I'll put some hay in it. He'll get used to it being there during the year with his trips around the garden. So he'll know it will be suitable for hibernation. The wire fencing around the whole of this bed is to prevent cats from pouncing out of the azaleas on the small birds that are often on the patio using the feeder. "We met" around 8.30 pm last night on the path next to the shed. He must have been coming down to his feeder. He stopped. I went into the garage through the side door and when I came out a few seconds later, he'd turned around and was walking down towards the bottom of the garden. I went indoors and five minutes later he was in his feeder box. He must have come along the side fence and over or around the rockery. I've noticed that it would be possible for 'arry to squeeze under the tea-house in a couple of places as they can flatten themselves a bit. The preventative measures I took a few years ago were just to keep out the foxes. At the moment, apart from behind the rockery, under the euonymus, there's presently no other shelter from rain. Now whether he goes under the tea-house at night, I've no idea, (I did see him turn round and walk in that direction when we "met" the other night). There might still be a smell of foxes from three years ago which could deter him. Anyway, I've ordered a motion detection camera, I'll put on the shed covering that area and we'll find out. They are cheap enough.
His house will be going hard up against the fence under the azaleas in the last photo in my previous post. I'm a bit concerned that it might get damp, so I'll paint the outside of the base with the same stuff I use on the rest of the woodwork in the garden. I've a spare paving slap from when the koi pool was filled in. I'll put four small rubber door stops on the bottom of the house as feet and stand it on the slab, that should keep it reasonably free from damp.
It was a golf day today, so I didn't have a lot of time to "do stuff" this afternoon. On the way home, in anticipation of the camera being delivered today, I stopped off to get things I'd need for the camera and hopefully 'arry's 'ouse if it arrives tomorrow. So I bought the sim card and batteries for the camera. I'd decided to give the 6v adapter I've ordered its own socket rather than use one of the two in the shed that are for the mower/strimmer/garden vac. etc., so I stopped off at my local electrical wholesalers and bought a 13amp switched socket and back box, at a cost of £2.48. So this is now ready for the adapter. I put the batteries and the sim card in the camera, attached the mounting bracket to the front of the shed and attached the camera. So we might get some photos/video tonight. I've altered the restraint on the door if it's open and the wind blows it won't swing back and hit the camera. 'arry was a naughty boy/girl last night, not only did he poo in the bird feeder as usual, under his feeding area cover and when he'd had his dinner, also in his own feeding bowl!
We have ours half buried in the open compost heap now and added a tunnel as Logan suggested, makes good sense and will give the Hedgehogs extra safety from other predators.
The one that @Doghouse Riley has bought has a tunnel built inside of it. Dianne is that how you made yours?
I didn't have any part in the making of just planned it and Husband soon got on to making it,.then you said a tunnel for safety so he added the tunnel and have it sited now in the best place we could find by our open compost heap....
