Chickens and Hedgehogs

[tlck9]

I have my chickens in a static pen and was thinking that I could rescue a hedgehog to keep pests down.

Apparently injured ones can be rehomed in areas that are enclosed, which due to the enclosed chicken area and the rest being bordered with chicken wire I wondered if they would live side by side but not together.

I have an area of allotment 20 metres by 5metres, leading to a further 5m x 5m which will eventually have access to the greenhouse and I wondered since i have to go up to the chucks every day, I could rehome a needy hedgehog

opinions please?

ps a well groomed, flea less one of course

[Aberdeenplotter]

prickly problem that one

BooM Boom

[Bramble-Poultry]

Right - bit of a long post from me on this one (mike writing by the way) as we have been involved in many hedgehog rescues whilst living in staffordshire.

Fact One: Hedgehog Fleas are species specific to hedgehogs. They will jump off and attempt to feed on other species, however, they will only feed and survive in the prescence of a hedgehog. So dont worry about hedgehog fleas feeding on dogs or cats that you may own. It will end badly for the flea

Fact Two Thnks to all the overspray and negligent use of pesticides and insecticides in the farming community, and likewise the excessive use (in some cases) of gardeners, the problem of fleas on hedgehogs is practicaly non existent. THe insecticides tend to rub off onto the hedgehog and kill of the fleas on the hedgehogs.

When we rescues hedgehogs we rarely find a hog with fleas.

Fact Three Hedgehogds do however suffer from ticks. These are related to spiders and are usually found around the ears, eyes, facial area and around the skirtline of the prickles. These need to be removed otherwise they will feed on the hog, drop off when full and then reattach themselves to the next target, which could be you, your pets or even your chickens. Ticks can therefore transmit blood based diseases, most common to humans being Limes disease.

If you find ticks, they need to be removed either with a specialised tick remover or through the use of a pure alcohol such as vodka which you paint onto the tick. Once the tick is removed, place it into a pot of vodka to kill it, or burn them otherwise they will crawl off and reinfest you later.

Hedgehogs can dig. They have powerful front paws. Therefore if enclosing in a garden, you need to bury the mesh into the ground a bit to stop them getting out. Mesh size needs to be a MAXIMUM of 3/4 inch. Any larger they wiull get their heads into it, and because of the bristles will not get their heads back out. The mesh need only be a maximum of two foot high as they arent very good at climbing in general. You get an exception as usual, but in the main they will stay on the level.

Hedgehogs will need a dark burrow with which to live in. Hedgehog houses can be bought or simply made. These homes also make excellant burrows for rats, so make sure that the house is placed somewhere easy for you to check the contents to make sure that hedgie is still in there and not Roland Rat.

Rat bait will kill a hedgehog, as will slug bait. Do not use poisons or baits anywhere near a hedgehog. Also, keep any water dishes (and you will need one for the hedgehogs) clean and SHALLOW. people often have a pond in the garden and hedgehogs are not good swimmers. In fact they often drown in ponds.

Hedgehogs DO NOT EAT BREAD AND MILK. in fact if you do feed them this you will kill the hedgehogs by giving them serious stomach upsets. They are carnivorous and as such will each small mice, slugs, snails and even frogs. If you wish to feed hedgehogs you need to feed them a high quality (and therefore high meat content) cat food. Not fish flavours but chicken, beef or game. stay away from duck or lamb as its too rich. You can also feed them minced beef straight from the packet.

This will pose you a problem as a hedgehog will not always finish its food and you may end up with unfinished meat laying around the garden which may cause digestive problems with your chickens (not to mention encourage bacteria) as well as acting as a beacon to every rat in the are.

I am not saying it is not possible to keep hedgehogs and chickens in the same garden, however, be careful on how you manage the two types of animals.

[Hilary B]

Hedgehogs like eggs (on a few Scottish islands they have been responsible for drastic reductions in the breeding success of ground-nesting birds), but whether they could break into a chook egg I don't know, quite likely not.
There used to be a theory that if you had a hen in the old-fashioned sort of broody coop, where the chicks could get out but the hen culdn't, they believed that there was risk of a hedgehog getting in and eating the hen, then being unable to get out, because of being bigger with a full stomach. I never found the idea convincing, but I think you should know that these tales exist before making a decision.

[Snadger]

Never had them both on the same plate!

[jessmorris]

..not sure how I feel about a wild animal being penned (however good the intentions are) ..

[tlck9]

thanks Bramble for the information. As always its another responsibility, so one that need to be carefully considered.

Jess - they will only rehome an injured hedgehog to a penned garden or area, that would not otherwise survive in the wild. They would not consider a fully fit one to be penned as they can travel up to 2 miles a night.

My thought process is that the chickens would not actually come in to contact with it, or on the same ground, the hedgehog would have the run of the main area, hopefully keeping the pests down.

But as a say, just an inital thought process at the moment

[Suechooks]

Hope you don't have electric fencing Tick? I managed to execute 2 last year with mine.