No sign of hogs here, although they do seem to be late starters most years! Have put the feeding station out with cat biscuits as opposed to meaty food, but no takers as yet. Will persevere!
I am sure they will come AnniD, it is milder here that with you, and we are exceptionally lucky here - there are more hogs than in the U.K. We had taken at least 4 to the rescue shelter, and still have these three visiting us. Hopefully they will continue to multiply here and you will eventually get your visitors to come to the feeding station.
We have seen 5 within a few feet of each other at one time, but not all feeding from the bowl.
Have you considered a trough? Love the pictures @ Purplerallim and Guernsey.
We had a little pile of hog poop a week or so ago. It was small but definitely hog. But not seen any since and they barely touched the food. I have put out fresh several times as it had been mild, but no takers.
Water is in dishes on the lawn all year round but also a small dish by the house wall that does not freeze much and as it is right outside the door I can top it up around midnight, and first thing if it does. Hard frost and an early hours visit they would be stuffed, but I think that it is mostly not frozen, and they, with luck I hope, should not be out anyway.
What do they do in the wild if disturbed or woken? Would they lick or eat frost from grass and leaves if they were thirsty with no water supply?
What a lovely surprise Hostafan1, I am sure he will be fine in the warmth and shelter of the polytunnel. Yes, I think they would obtain water from the grass, there is usually moisture first thing in the morning. Even on the warm days recently we had a heavy dew, often the lawn didn't completely dry out until midday, so at night there would be moist for them. Sadly one drowned in our small pond many years ago, perhaps it was trying to drink from the pond and overbalanced. I always have a few dishes of water around the garden now - even the cat drinks from them!
A trough is an excellent idea - one of "our" hogs regularly climbs into the food bowl, leaving no space for other hogs to eat from it too.
Guernsey Donkey, just wondered if you've got bricks or a slope or something in your pond now (if you've still got it), just in case one falls in again, then they can climb out ?
Yes, I had thought of that AnniD, we have a branch as well as a beach and shelving in the big pond, the little (where the drowning took place) has baskets and a different stone surround now. It was a horrible discovery and I certainly don't want it to happen again.
We've fed our early Hedghog most days through the winter. He/she still comes out early. Early then comes outabout 6 o'clock, and later 2 larger ones that sometimes fight. Whoa !! just had a sparrow hawk dive in one of our laurel hedges, didn't come out with any dinner!!
Our local rescue has hogs coming into their feeding stations from outside over the last few nights, and they are starting to release hedgehogs back into the wild. The forecast for a couple of nights next week is on or around freezing, but after that nothing in the forseeable future. Think l need to get our feeding station out of the greenhouse!
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Love the pictures @ Purplerallim and Guernsey.
We had a little pile of hog poop a week or so ago. It was small but definitely hog.
But not seen any since and they barely touched the food. I have put out fresh several times as it had been mild, but no takers.
Water is in dishes on the lawn all year round but also a small dish by the house wall that does not freeze much and as it is right outside the door I can top it up around midnight, and first thing if it does. Hard frost and an early hours visit they would be stuffed, but I think that it is mostly not frozen, and they, with luck I hope, should not be out anyway.
What do they do in the wild if disturbed or woken? Would they lick or eat frost from grass and leaves if they were thirsty with no water supply?