On 07/09/2010 11:38, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-09-07 09:49:41 +0100, "Alan Hutson" said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-09-05 19:34:54 +0100, "Alan Hutson"
said:

Evening All

Could be new to some but a couple of years ago I came across a pile of
leaves set about moving them and after been bitten by fleas realised it
was
Horace Hedgehogs home. Had to go to medical centre but I can't recall
how I
was treated.

Today I came across another pile, I was a little more circumspect and
detected Horace or his cousin inside.
I could manage without these piles of leaves which arrive quite
suddenly
and
I had put down to wind.If I was to construct a des res furnished with
straw
is he likely to move house or should I just save my energy,?

Alan.

You could leave a supply of straw and hope they use and at the site
given
below you can buy (or see how to construct) a home for them. There's no
guarantee they'll use it, though! Hedgehogs are becoming increasingly
scarce so you're extremely lucky to have them. They're a great boon to
gardeners because they eat garden pests you're well rid of. It sounds as
if yours are still breeding so don't disturb them. However, over-tidy
gardens aren't helpful to wildlife at all. Hedgehogs can breed from
April to September, though most breeding takes place in May and June. I
wish we had more of them here but because there are a lot of badgers
around we don't have many hogs, unfortunately.
http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon


Thanks Sacha, a useful link.

http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk and some links from there I found
worthwhile following

Its informative and well worth a visit.
I have a couple of old caravan waste water containers, rigid black PVC
which
when I follow recommendations re entry, ventilation do a bit of external
insulation etc horace will hopefully find it acceptable. He's been around
for a quite a while as I frequently find droppings on the grass, I
used to
call it a lawn :-)

Alan

What a good idea. If Horace & Family don't use them, something else
might. We had grass snakes up in our huge compost/bonfire heap last year
and I was remarking that nobody seems to have seen them this year. One
of the staff piped up that she'd been working near the other compost
heaps and a huge one slithered right past her and disapppeared into the
hedge. You never know what's out there! We set up a CCTV camera which
has recently decidded to stop working just before we have seen several
badger scrapes on the lawns. We did get some wonderful aerial ballet
from the bats though!

All my gardening is done on a city centre balcony, but this post is
making my crave moving out of the city to somewhere with fresh air even
more :-)