7.5 Acres of land
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Hi All
I am shortly hoping to purchase 7.5 acres of land. 4 acres of this land is currently grazing on which we will develop a fruit garden and orchard, flower garden and a place of quiet. The other 3.5 acres is currently full of gorse and houses badgers and foxes. I am hoping to provide a safe place for hedgehogs in the area but with this much land I am unsure how to go about it. The other issue is the foxes and badgers, are they dangerous to hedgehogs.
I have thought about building a couple of ;gardens’. My thought was to create a rose garden with seating and developing boxes for the hedgehogs and maybe a herb garden and flower garden. I thought I could make these areas 15ft x 15ft with raised beds and hedging and to provide shelter and spacing for the hedgehogs to wander from garden to garden.
At some point in the future I would also like to develop a foster programme.
Can anyone help please?
Your idea is lovely but…
Badgers are the only natural predator for a hedgehog. They kill them by uncurling them and eating the stomach then leaving the hog to die a very horrid death.
Hogs and badgers both eat the same food so are in competition. When there is enough it can be ok, but when there isn’t then hogs move further up the food chain.
Foxes are not a natural predator but are learning, and would certainly take a young hog without difficulty
Hedgehogs will not remain in an area with badgers on the whole, but unfortunately badgers are increasing in numbers
Note also that hogs will easily roam 1.5 miles a night so are very likely to come into contact with your badgers.
If you currently don’t have hogs in your area, this is why, so please don’t try to introduce them
I would suggest you do some research on the behaviour of all the animalsI am looking long term rather than immediately and will be moving the badgers on. There is a lot wrong with this piece of land which I will correct over the next 2 years.
My first will be to establish hedging and cull many of the covid birds and squirrels. I want to establish a place of safety for many of the song birds that are disappearing from our gardens.
I want to also turn the area over to an orchard and forest gardening with a huge flower garden.
I recognise this will take time to establish but on my radar is a place of safety for hedgehogs.Whilst some may sympathise with your wish to help song birds and hedgehogs, perhaps you should have done some research before considering purchasing that particular piece of land.
Badgers are protected by the law in England and Wales and so are the setts (burrows) they live in, under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. Likewise corvids are protected – it is illegal to hurt any wild birds including corvids. So what you are suggesting is both illegal and inappropriate.
If there are no hedgehogs already in the area there may also be other reasons for that, in that it may not be a suitable area for them.
Hedges are good for hedgehogs, as are wild flower meadows. Rose gardens not so much and raised beds would need to have methods of access provided for hedgehogs to get to them so that they can forage for food.
However, I suggest you do some studying before considering purchasing any land to help hedgehogs, then you might find somewhere that is more suitable for them, preferably where there are some already present and you don’t have any potential problems with other species. Then you can ensure that the habitat continues to remain suitable for them in the future.
Here is a link with suggestions to make gardens more wildlife friendly
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/helpful-garden-features/
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