Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs are in decline and they need our help.  This little prickly visitor is always  appreciated by gardeners as they eat all the snails, slugs and other unwelcome insects. It is also amazing to spot one of these little mammals in our garden, and if you do offering them food and provide a safe space to nest and shelter. 

When was the last time you spotted a hedgehog? These are difficult times for our prickly friends as their numbers have dramatically reduced.  Nowadays it is reported that less than 800,000 roam in the UK alone.  These harmless creatures cause no harm to anyone, and it so rare these days that you spot one.  Two years ago I made a point of making my garden at home a wild paradise for hedgehogs and other wildlife species. 

I added a hibernation box which was filled not long after I placed it in a quiet corner of my garden and covered it over with some foliage.  Night after night a new hedgehog is spotted as they know food is available.  I have made a hedgehog safety area and it’s grown over time.  Recently with the help of my friends from Green Feathers, we have added a solar powered camera kit, which is infrared and so I can start filming the hedgehogs coming and goings and I can make sure they are safe. 

It’s so simple to make small changes in our home gardens, community land, green spaces and land owned by corporate businesses, under the new Environmental Act os 2021 and the launch of BNG ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’ it is now becoming mandatory that if you are a landowner you are required to give at least 10% back to nature.  This includes hedgehogs, birds, wildlife and insects. 

The perfect solution hedgehogs is to add one of our own designed and UK built compliant hedgehog house. To help stop the decline of hedgehogs, it is so important that we do what we can to help them survive and thrive. When you buy a hedgehog box, it’s so easy to install simply place it in the hedgerow hidden with some shelter. Add some dust free meadow hay to the box for nesting material, a brick to the roof and cover with some foliage.  The hedgehogs will find their own way to a new home. 

 Add some food in a feeding station a little bit away from the house, our feeding stations help to keep the food dry and it’s another shelter for the hogs and hoglets to feel safe and dry when they are feeding.  

Our friends at Prickly Paws Hedgehog Rescue in Cornwall will be the first charity of its kind to open a ‘HOGSPITAL’ they just need to raise a bit more money to finish the build.  We are helping them raise this money to make sure the 100-150 hedgehogs that they rescue - rehabilitate - release are saved and thrive in the wild once again.  Currently in their garden at home in three small sheds, they are over whelmed with the care and constant time that is needed to help these prickly creatures survive. 

Go on, if you don’t have a hedgehog house, why not buy one today? Add a camera and stream it on your phone or tablet.  It’s so beautiful to know what you then will be helping this species survive and grow in numbers again.