Hedgehogs need winter quarters from November. With a self-made hedgehog house you can provide them with a shelter for the cold season. We show you how to do this here.
The food supply for hedgehogs is limited in autumn and winter, to compensate for this they keep from November to March Hibernation. In addition to fat reserves, a hedgehog needed a quarter to overwinter. A nest made of brushwood and leaves serves the hedgehogs as a natural shelter in winter. In your garden you also have the opportunity to make winter quarters for the hedgehogs: a self-made hedgehog house made of wood or a neighborhood made of bricks. We have picked out two methods of construction for you!
Hedgehog house build from wood
You can buy prefabricated hedgehog house kits or you can get the parts yourself. Ideally, the house will have a small, separate room in which the hedgehog is protected from intruders such as cats. The project "Igel in Bayern" of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation and the State Association for Bird Protection in Bavaria e. V. has created a construction manual for a hedgehog winter house. For this you need the following parts:
- 1x roof: 34×46 cm
- 2x side walls: 26x30x24 cm
- 1x front: 26×40 cm, cutout: 10×10 cm
- 1x partition: 23x18x22 cm
- 1x back wall: 40×24 cm
- 2x roof battens: 37x2x2 cm
- Screws
The wood should have a thickness of 2 centimeters! The hedgehog house is higher at the front than at the back, so the wooden parts of the side walls and the partition wall have different heights. And this is how it is built:
You can also download the instructions as a PDF on the "Igel in Bayern" project page. If you have no way of sawing the wooden parts yourself, many hardware stores offer you to cut wood to size.
Build a hedgehog house from stones
An alternative to a wooden shelter is a stone hedgehog house. For that you need Bricks and a wooden platethat serves as a roof for the house. You should weigh down the roof with stones so that it is secure.
The house doesn't have to be particularly high, about two to three stacked bricks are enough. Create an interior space of around 30×30 cm or 30×40 cm and it is best to build in a partition, as with a wooden house, and leave a gap in the front for the entrance. The stone house could look like this:
Whether made of wood or stones: place the hedgehog house next to one dry and quiet location (e.g. on a hedge), cover the floor of the house with leaves (or straw) so that the winter sleepers feel comfortable there.
Tip: Hedgehogs usually do not need additional feeding, you can find out when it makes sense here: Feeding hedgehogs.
Have you ever thought about a worm box in your apartment or an insect hotel in the garden? With a worm box you can compost in the house and what an insect hotel is useful for and how you build it yourself, we show you here: Build an insect hotel yourself.
By the way: In the Brigitte Community you can exchange ideas with others about DIY projects!