What made today a special day?

[Miggins]

We have had a hedgehog house in our garden for the last two years and today there was a hedgehog curled up inside. So excited! I could see a little bristly bottom just inside the door! Will feed it appropriate food and give water and encourage it to have lots of babies in our garden. So excited by this discovery!

 

[uttoxram75]

4 minutes ago, Miggins said:

We have had a hedgehog house in our garden for the last two years and today there was a hedgehog curled up inside. So excited! I could see a little bristly bottom just inside the door! Will feed it appropriate food and give water and encourage it to have lots of babies in our garden. So excited by this discovery!

 

I'll check back in an hour to see how many "little bristly bottom " jokes our resident Carry on fans have posted!?

Edited August 29, 2021 by uttoxram75

[Parsnip]

That's beautiful well done! You've inspired me I'm gonna set one up!

[maxjam]

32 minutes ago, Miggins said:

We have had a hedgehog house in our garden for the last two years and today there was a hedgehog curled up inside. So excited! I could see a little bristly bottom just inside the door! Will feed it appropriate food and give water and encourage it to have lots of babies in our garden. So excited by this discovery!

We've got a very large garden and recently turned the bottom part of it over to nature, put a few hedgehog houses down and natural pond etc.  Not seen any evidence of anything yet but its only been there since March, I'm hoping this winter I might be able to attract some wildlife with food n shelter etc.

Gratz on your babies!

[Miggins]

2 minutes ago, Beetroot said:

That's beautiful well done! You've inspired me I'm gonna set one up!

HI, @Beetroot! Thanks for your post! Hedgehogs are in so much in decline at present that they need all the help they can get. They used to travel through loads of gardens at night, sometimes by up to a mile but now that we have replaced hedges with fences they can't travel as they once did. The population has declined drastically recently and they need all the help they can get at present. Glad you can help! X

[Miggins]

16 minutes ago, maxjam said:

We've got a very large garden and recently turned the bottom part of it over to nature, put a few hedgehog houses down and natural pond etc.  Not seen any evidence of anything yet but its only been there since March, I'm hoping this winter I might be able to attract some wildlife with food n shelter etc.

Gratz on your babies!

Your garden sounds wonderful, @maxjam! Hedgehogs are so endangered now and they need all the help we can give them. We have had our hedgehog house down for 2 years with no visitors so it was so wonderful today to see one inside! Hope you get to see one very soon. My husband, Steve, works in Moorland restoration in the Peak District and so we try to garden organically, be 'bee friendly'  and do all we can to encourage wildlife to our garden. All the best for your nature garden!!

[sage]

59 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

I'll check back in an hour to see how many "little bristly bottom " jokes our resident Carry on fans have posted!?

oooh that was a close shave 

[uttoxram75]

8 minutes ago, sage said:

oooh that was a close shave 

Usual suspect....I expected a cheeky one from you.

[Miggins]

7 minutes ago, sage said:

oooh that was a close shave 

Just checked the hedgehog shelter and our little guest is still sleeping peacefully within with his little bristly bottom intact.

[Miggins]

Steve has just given our guest a meal of dog food and a bowl of water. Hope it encourages our hedgehog to stay in our garden.

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Miggins

[Dordogne-Ram]

French hedgehogs absolutely love soft cat food, the type you buy in sachets. Has worked well for attracting them for us over a number of years. 

[Miggins]

Just now, Dordogne-Ram said:

French hedgehogs absolutely love soft cat food, the type you buy in sachets. Has worked well for attracting them for us over a number of years. 

Thanks,  @Dordogne-Ram.  We will put cat food down for our hedgehog but only when our cat, Freddie has come in for the night or he'll be going out for seconds!

[Miggins]

So, what made everyone else's day special today? Doesn't have to be anything momentous, just some little thing that made your day!

[maxjam]

1 hour ago, Miggins said:

Your garden sounds wonderful, @maxjam! Hedgehogs are so endangered now and they need all the help we can give them. We have had our hedgehog house down for 2 years with no visitors so it was so wonderful today to see one inside! Hope you get to see one very soon. My husband, Steve, works in Moorland restoration in the Peak District and so we try to garden organically, be 'bee friendly'  and do all we can to encourage wildlife to our garden. All the best for your nature garden!!

Thanks, when we first moved in it had a huuuuuuge lawn.  I thought there is no way I'm mowing that every week lol, so cornered a section off and bought a few chickens ?.  Since then that area has grown and now have approx 25 chickens and 20 quails - we supply half the street with cheap eggs!

Over the past few years we have relaid the patio, created a nice lawn and sectioned off another 'allotment' area.  The bottom bit of the garden was always a problem area though that we never knew what to do with.  Then following the death of our first dog a few years ago the Vets kindly sent us a condolence card containing wildlife seeds to plant and remember her by that we hung onto - that along with watching numerous episodes of 'Garden Rescue' last year was all the inspiration I needed to get creative!  Although it is surprising how much it costs to make it look natural lol...

I'm trying to encourage bee's as well, I am very tempted to get an Omlet Bee Hive - I noticed they has started doing them a while back whilst shopping for a bigger chicken coop. 

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/beekeeping/beehaus/

[Miggins]

1 hour ago, Beetroot said:

That's beautiful well done! You've inspired me I'm gonna set one up!

You might have to wait a while, @Beetroot! It has taken us two years to entice the little critters in!  But

it was well worth the wait!

[Miggins]

5 minutes ago, maxjam said:

Thanks, when we first moved in it had a huuuuuuge lawn.  I thought there is no way I'm mowing that every week lol, so cornered a section off and bought a few chickens ?.  Since then that area has grown and now have approx 25 chickens and 20 quails - we supply half the street with cheap eggs!

Over the past few years we have relaid the patio, created a nice lawn and sectioned off another 'allotment' area.  The bottom bit of the garden was always a problem area though that we never knew what to do with.  Then following the death of our first dog a few years ago the Vets kindly sent us a condolence card containing wildlife seeds to plant and remember her by that we hung onto - that along with watching numerous episodes of 'Garden Rescue' last year was all the inspiration I needed to get creative!  Although it is surprising how much it costs to make it look natural lol...

I'm trying to encourage bee's as well, I am very tempted to get an Omlet Bee Hive - I noticed they has started doing them a while back whilst shopping for a bigger chicken coop. 

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/beekeeping/beehaus/

 Your garden sounds wonderful, @maxjam. Love the fact that you have chickens and have your own eggs and know that they are ethically produced. We only have a relatively small garden but we keep a couple of areas of lawn uncut and sown with wild flowers for the bees and insects. The cat loves to get in the middle of the long grass and flowers and snuggles down into a cat nest. We have a couple of bee 'hotels' which are all 'stopped up' at present ready for them to emerge in the spring. Hope the chickens are well! If I lived nearer I'd gladly have some of their eggs!

[Wolfie]

We had my parents round today & I did a slap up roast beef lunch to mark my mum’s 74th birthday this week. I’m a good cook. The beef was fab and my dauphinoise potatoes are legendary in the family but I’ve never been able to make decent Yorkshire puddings…..until today. It felt like a triumph! 

[maxjam]

3 minutes ago, Miggins said:

 Your garden sounds wonderful, @maxjam. Love the fact that you have chickens and have your own eggs and know that they are ethically produced. We only have a relatively small garden but we keep a couple of areas of lawn uncut and sown with wild flowers for the bees and insects. The cat loves to get in the middle of the long grass and flowers and snuggles down into a cat nest. We have a couple of bee 'hotels' which are all 'stopped up' at present ready for them to emerge in the spring. Hope the chickens are well! If I lived nearer I'd gladly have some of their eggs!

The chickens are great thanks, although I had to spend over £1500 last winter to buy a pony shelter, then convert it into a chicken coop as we had to keep them indoors for a couple of months due to an avian flu outbreak in the UK - nice unexpected bill ? Ah well, I ended up remodelling the entire chicken run and bottom half of the garden in the spring so alls well that ends well!

Yeah people love the eggs, fresh eggs taste so much better than the ones you get from shops that are often approaching 14-21 days old.  I sell my quail eggs really cheap as well - they are a luxury item for some reason is supermarkets (and a super food fyi) but they are easier and cheaper to produce that chicken eggs, so go figure.  Oh and poop, gardeners can't get enough of that either!  My chickens and quails can't poop enough to keep up with demand ?

It is nice to give a bit back to nature where you can, it doesn't matter how big or small your garden is there is always something you can do.  I hope you get many years of use and enjoyment out of your hedgehog house and bee hotels ? I'll look on with envious eyes until I manage to get one to stop by my garden.   If you're letting your grass grow long you could maybe consider getting some wildflower meadow seeds?  They don't come cheap but add a lot of colour and more of a natural look to your nature area - great for bugs n butterflies etc as well. 

[Miggins]

4 minutes ago, Wolfie said:

We had my parents round today & I did a slap up roast beef lunch to mark my mum’s 74th birthday this week. I’m a good cook. The beef was fab and my dauphinoise potatoes are legendary in the family but I’ve never been able to make decent Yorkshire puddings…..until today. It felt like a triumph! 

Those yorkies! Well worth waiting for!! Glad they came came good for your mum's birthday!

 

[Miggins]

2 minutes ago, maxjam said:

The chickens are great thanks, although I had to spend over £1500 last winter to buy a pony shelter, then convert it into a chicken coop as we had to keep them indoors for a couple of months due to an avian flu outbreak in the UK - nice unexpected bill ? Ah well, I ended up remodelling the entire chicken run and bottom half of the garden in the spring so alls well that ends well!

Yeah people love the eggs, fresh eggs taste so much better than the ones you get from shops that are often approaching 14-21 days old.  I sell my quail eggs really cheap as well - they are a luxury item for some reason is supermarkets (and a super food fyi) but they are easier and cheaper to produce that chicken eggs, so go figure.  Oh and poop, gardeners can't get enough of that either!  My chickens and quails can't poop enough to keep up with demand ?

It is nice to give a bit back to nature where you can, it doesn't matter how big or small your garden is there is always something you can do.  I hope you get many years of use and enjoyment out of your hedgehog house and bee hotels ? I'll look on with envious eyes until I manage to get one to stop by my garden.   If you're letting your grass grow long you could maybe consider getting some wildflower meadow seeds?  They don't come cheap but add a lot of colour and more of a natural look to your nature area - great for bugs n butterflies etc as well. 

Happy hens lay tasty eggs! So glad you care so much about them. I wish all the hens in the country were looked after like this. We have sown wild flowers into the grass but I think we might have to re-sow next year as not many came up. It took us 2 years to get a hedgehog into our shelter, so I think you just have to be patient! ?