I was lucky enough to be given a hedgehog house for Christmas. Keen to avoid the bat box scenario (where I took months to decide where to put it), I started to look for sites straight away.
In my experience, hedgehogs like to build nests under dense bushes and or wood piles. Spreading conifers are ideal. But I found it hard to find the right spot. We have no spreading conifers. Our shrubbery was only planted last year and so the bushes are still small. The hedge is too close to the road. The veggie patch too busy.
This was proving harder than I’d thought it be. I could have put it in the field, there’s plenty of mature hedging there. But I wanted it to be nearby.
Then finally, a solution. We have a number of wood piles which are there for wildlife (not heading to the wood burner!). And part of our garden is fenced off to keep the dogs and chickens out, so is nice and quiet. These fences already have hedgehog tunnels.
So, today I put the hedgehog house in place. I covered it with a good layer of twigs for insulation and cover. Can you spot the entrance in the photo above? If not, you can see it before I covered it in the photo below.
Now, just have to wait and see if a hedgehog appears. It’s fingers crossed because, truth be told, I have seen no sign of them since moving here.
