Hedgehog House

We made a hedgehog house. We made it using these instructions from the RSPB, but we changed it a bit to give it little legs to raise it up from the ground so the bottom wouldn’t get wet and soggy.

We started off with a big bit of plywood. We made sure we chose plywood from a sustainable source.

Then we measured and cut out the sides, front, back, roof and floor.

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We cut a 13cm wide doorway on the front for the hedgehogs to get in and out.

We cut a small hole in the back and put a bit of old pipe in pointing downwards so the rain can’t get in, to let fresh air in.

Then we screwed all the pieces together to make a box. We also made a tunnel for the front to keep it warm and stop predators getting in.

We painted the outside but not the inside with wood treatment to make it last longer. It’s important to use water based wood treatment and not to put any on the inside because that might be bad for the hedgehogs.

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We collected lots of dry leaves and put them inside to make a nice bed for the hedgehogs. We screwed some little legs on the bottom and we screwed the lid on so we can take it off again if we need to. We screwed the tunnel on too. Then the hedgehog house was finished!

We put it under a bush in our garden. Then we collected lots of sticks and piled them on top of it and round it to cover it and make it look like a nice home for hedgehogs and to keep it extra warm.

We waited… There was one night when a hedgehog kept looking at it and going in and out. Then the next night it did the same but the last video on our hedgehog camera was a hedgehog going in and not coming out again!

Then the next night the hedgehog woke up inside the hedgehog house and came out!

We hope the hedgehog might find a mate and have babies inside!

You can make a hedgehog house if you like so hedgehogs can hibernate and have babies in there and sleep during the day.

If you want to find out more about how to help hedgehogs, why not play my Hedgehogs Highways board game!