A New House
For my birthday Stephen bought me a new house and here it is:
It's quite small - less than a couple of feet long, though better built than some: the roof is double skinned for insulation and it has a raised timber floor to keep damp out.
The cats rather like it but they can't get in as the entrance is too small. It has a little tunnel as an entrance.
So, who would live in a house like this?
It's for a hedgehog. We've quite often found hedgehogs in the garden and they're very good for the garden of course as they eat lots of slugs. I don't like using slug pellets as they're not good for wildlife so I'd far prefer this natural pest control. (There's also my mother, late at night, armed with a pair of scissors, cutting slugs in half ewwww - - but again, they then remain edible!)
The idea is that you stow the house in a convenient bit of undergrowth (we have lots) and hedgehogs can use it for hibernating, nesting, or simply to keep out of the rain.
One year we did have a nest of hedgehogs in the garden and the mother followed by her three babies looked SO cute. So I'm hoping that this little house will provide a safe habitat, and that the hedgehogs will like it. I was delighted with my birthday present but I bet if I'd asked "Guess what Stephen bought me!" then nobody could have guessed.
It's quite small - less than a couple of feet long, though better built than some: the roof is double skinned for insulation and it has a raised timber floor to keep damp out.The cats rather like it but they can't get in as the entrance is too small. It has a little tunnel as an entrance.
So, who would live in a house like this?
It's for a hedgehog. We've quite often found hedgehogs in the garden and they're very good for the garden of course as they eat lots of slugs. I don't like using slug pellets as they're not good for wildlife so I'd far prefer this natural pest control. (There's also my mother, late at night, armed with a pair of scissors, cutting slugs in half ewwww - - but again, they then remain edible!)
The idea is that you stow the house in a convenient bit of undergrowth (we have lots) and hedgehogs can use it for hibernating, nesting, or simply to keep out of the rain.
One year we did have a nest of hedgehogs in the garden and the mother followed by her three babies looked SO cute. So I'm hoping that this little house will provide a safe habitat, and that the hedgehogs will like it. I was delighted with my birthday present but I bet if I'd asked "Guess what Stephen bought me!" then nobody could have guessed.
posted by Daphne at 7:31 pm
6 Comments:
I too have hedgehogs living and breeding in my garden. They are round most nights after the cats leftovers.
It's a cracking little house you have there for them, but......I am tempted to ask...what did hedgehogs do for accommodation for the last 1000 years before humans were kind enough to offer this 5* luxury?
I guess I was way off with my guess of a Virgin Galactic ticket ! Ah well there's always next year.
Perfume? Roses? Chocolates? No! Your romantic husband gets you an old wooden box with a hole in it! But this is not a joke - do you realise that in some country areas people would sometimes collect garden slugs, salt them and store them to eat in the winter? We don't need hedgehogs or pellets for slug control what we need is recipes!
Bernard - we brought the hedgehogs the motor car, which has flattened lots of them, so I think a bit of help with housing is the least we can do!
Silverback - - if any Virgin Galactic tickets were available, he'd not be giving them to me, I suspect!
YP - if he ever goes down the perfume/roses/chocolates route I'll be wondering what he's been up to! As for your Slug Stew - - sometimes it's good to live in the twenty-first century, isn't it?
Slugs are actually pretty bad for hedgehogs since they carry parasite eggs.
Given the choice hedgehogs will pick earthworms, caterpillars, beetles and grubs over slugs any day.
But in my hedgehog rehabilitation experience, chopped cooked chicken is their absolute #1 fave. Do you feed them as well?
Anna - actually I don't blame the hedgehogs, I'd prefer any of those over slugs too!
Yes, I do feed them when I know they're about - cat food usually. But I'll try them on some chicken, thank you! And thank you for visiting my blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home