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Writer's pictureWildlifeKate

New hedgehog house now in situ

An early birthday pressie took up residence in the garden this weekend. My birthday is not until the end of next month, but my sister in law asked me what I might like and I am sure she was delighted, when I said a hedgehog house!!! I had been looking at the new product from Ricky at Riverside woodcraft, a company local to me. Ricky made my kestrel box and I was impressed with the quality and the price. I have ordered quite a few other products from Ricky, that you will hearing about soon on my blog, but when I went to see him on Friday, he had these boxes ready to go…I couldn’t wait until next month, so took it home with me.

For the amazing price of just under £40, this is a really sturdy, well made box. Take a look at his website if you are considering buying any nestboxes etc.



 It is  all treated with a beeswax based preservative and finished off with non-corrosive , quality fittings.



Having seen a poor replica in a garden centre for a whopping £60, I feel that this product is money well spent.

Initially, I am going to use this box as a hedgehog feeding station…. then possibly fill it with leaves and hay etc, ready for hibernation / breeding. My hedgehogs are still pretty active every night at the moment, so I will feed in it for a bit and see if they come in. I wanted to fit a camera that I had, so fitted some white plastic corner brackets in the corner of the box on which to mount the camera…..


 …. note the toy monkey used as a subject to test the position of the camera before mounting it into the box (hadn’t got a toy hedgehog!)



 With a bit of fiddling with the camera, we got the best position and focus that we could. The camera connectors and cables were then tucked up above the camera and a small channel chiseled so the cables could run outside of the box.



 For the moment, I have positioned the box up in the hedge…. a on route that I know the hedgehogs use and close to where they feed at the moment. I need to be able to open it to put food in, so cannot embed it too far in the hedge at the moment. As it gets colder and I want to make it more attractive for hibernating hedgehogs, I may move it deeper into the hedgerow and fill it with leaves and hay.



The IR on the  nest box camera I have put in is only just powerful enough to cover the box and, as I write, nothing has been tempted by the trail of peanuts I left leading to a dish of peanuts and sunflower hearts. Watch this space…..

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