Friday 26 April 2013

The Hedgehog Shed Re-vamped

At the beginning of the year we applied for a grant from the Stansted Airport Community Trust to cover the cost of new hutches and shelving. 

The 'before' shot

We were delighted when they contacted us last month to inform us we'd been successful in our bid.



As a small not-for-profit organisation it has meant our old wooden cages could be replaced with easy to maintain plastic cages plus provide some much needed storage space. So over the last couple of weeks we have been busy spending our grant.

The first step was to source six new hutches suitable for hedgehogs. Thankfully we have Fin & Fur pets stores almost on our door step. So we contacted them and Karen not only took the time to find us just the right cages, deliver said cages but supported our work by selling them to us at cost.

Six new hutches just delivered

The next step was to empty the hedgehog shed ready for the work to start. We also took the opportunity sweep, scrub and re-home a myriad of spiders.

Almost empty - hedgehog still hibernating!

Keith of Orchard Carpentry & Property Maintenance arrived and started to work his magic with wood and nail.

Half of shelving in place

Within a few short hours the job was complete. We made up the new cages, slipped them onto the shelving and stood back and admired the:

drawers that are just the right size for storing tins of food,

shelving that's ideal for storing newspaper, hay and towels

and a hutch all ready for it's first 'lodger' 

The last thing to do was to move Grundy (who'd spent the day snoozing in the garage, away from all the noise) into one of the new cages with clean towels (he'd had an eye removed, so is on towels whilst he heals).

Grundy sleeping the afternoon away

We would like to thank the following people for their help:
Stansted Airport Community Trust - for covering the cost of the new hutches and shelving
Fin & Fur - for sourcing, delivering and supporting our work
Keith of Orchard Carpentry & Property Maintenance (Waltham Abbey) for his carpentry skills
Pippa King Ceramics and The Bishop's Stortford Chiropractic Clinic for sponsoring our new hog houses.

The 'after' shot - what a difference!

2 comments:

  1. Brilliant. Well done securing the finance. Secure and comfortable homes for all those rescue hogs.

    I have regular hedgehog visitors who come for the free nosh - crushed unsalted peanuts and dried mealworms. Here they very rarely eat any cat or dog food.

    I have had a link to you on my blog for a while in the hopes that more people will read about your activities.

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  2. John many thanks - glad to read you are lucky enough to have hogs visiting you and they get such a feast. If you wish to keep up to date on a day-to-day basis you can find us on Facebook. Just look for Herts Hogline.

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