Build your own hedgehog house – winter housing for your garden

Hedgehog house placed in front of a hedge next to a tree stump. — A place to spend the winter: build a cosy shelter for hedgehogs

Difficulty

medium
Cost

<50 £
Duration

3 h

Introduction

We love to wrap ourselves up in blankets and make ourselves comfortable at home in the winter. Our little animal friends also retreat to their winter housing during the cold months and seek out protection from the cold. Help them survive the cold season and build them a small hedgehog house in your garden, where they can then hibernate undisturbed. We show you how easy it is to do it – step by step.

You need

Tools

Utilities

sufficient clamps
pencil
ruler
Set square

Materials

Multiplex panels e.g. birch, 15mm thick (1x 40 x 17cm, 2x 40 x 22cm)
30x 4 x 50mm screws
16x 4 x 17mm screws
4x brackets (4 x 15mm)
6 metres birch trunks (diameter 4-6 cm)
Moss
Protective equipment (gloves, hearing protection, goggles, dust mask)

L: Length, W: Width, H: Height, D: Diameter

All tools and resources for the hedgehog house — Everything you need for the DIY winter housing

Let’s start – step by step

This step-by-step guide shows you how to easily build your own hedgehog house. Use the images as a guide.

Let's go - step by step

Step 1 5

Saw the birch trunks to size

Workbench with birch trunks. A birch trunk is clamped to the workbench and is being sawn through with a cordless saw. — The AdvancedCut 18 is especially good for easy one-handed cutting

And off we go! First, saw the birch trunks into 50cm long pieces using the AdvancedCut 18.To do so, mark the desired length with a pencil.Then, clamp the birch trunks to your workbench so that you have more control when sawing and, most importantly, can work safely.

Step 2 5

Notch the birch trunks

Workbench with birch trunks. A birch trunk is mounted on the workbench and is being notched in the middle on one side using a cordless saw — Notching birch trunks in the middle to a depth of 5cm.

The trunk pieces are then notched on both sides. When notching wood, a recess is made into which another notched piece can then be inserted – this wedged effect then produces a stable connection. First, mark out 5cm for the respective depth on both sides and then mark another line for the middle of the trunk. Notching is easy to do by hand with the AdvancedCut 18.

Notching made easy

Notching: sounds complicated? It isn’t really. If you are notching a piece of wood for the first time, feel free to look at the picture in the fourth step. This shows you a finished notched birch piece on the workbench.

Step 3 5

Saw out the front and back and sand the cut edges

Schematic illustration of the DIY hedgehog house — Easy: templates help you to draw the cut edges.

A workbench on which there is a multiplex panel is fixed with two clamps and a cordless two-speed combi drill. The entrance is sawn out with a cordless jigsaw. — If the curve becomes too tight when sawing, you can simply reposition the saw from the other side of the piece of wood.

To make sawing out the multiplex panels especially easy, sketch out the shape of your hedgehog house on the multiplex panel beforehand using a template. Print out two each of the templates for the front, back and inner wall of the hedgehog house. Then glue them together in the middle so that they form a semi-circle. The red marking is the position for the middle wall. Also glue together the template for the inner wall.

Please note: the recess for the door is on the right or back side of the house. This means that dogs or other larger animals cannot get into the separated area of the hedgehog house. To ensure that the hedgehog can hibernate undisturbed, place the house directly into the hedge so that it cannot be overturned.

You can also sketch the hedgehog house parts freehand on the multiplex panels and design it individually. It is important that you draw an entrance to the hedgehog house on the front through which an adult hedgehog can pass. Did you know that a fully grown hedgehog can grow up to 30cm long and 20cm high?

But be careful: do not make the opening larger than necessary because this would mean larger animals such as cats or martens could disturb the hedgehog's hibernation.

Now use your Universalsaw 18V-100 to saw along the marked cutting lines and cut out the shape of the front and back. Remember to also cut out the entrance door when sawing out the front. The curved saw blade makes it easy.

Before starting to saw out the door, first grab your 15mm Forstner drill bit and use it to drill through the nose of the sketched hedgehog, which later forms the entrance to the house. This will make it much easier for you to saw out the entrance later.

After sawing, the cut edges and surfaces should be sanded with the PSM 18 Li.

Precise sawing without slipping

To ensure that the multiplex panels don’t slip during sawing and that you can work safely and injury-free, secure your workpiece. Use at least two clamps and fix the wooden boards to the corners of your workbench. This will keep everything in place and you can concentrate fully on sawing out the template.

Step 4 5

Screw together the base frame

A workbench on which the front wall of the hedgehog house is fastened with clamps. The partition wall of the hedgehog house is affixed using a two-speed combi drill. — Connect the base frame of the hedgehog house using brackets

The base frame of the hedgehog house is now assembled. To do this, screw the three wood elements together using the AdvancedImpact 18 and the brackets. Attach the middle wall with two brackets each on the front and back of the hedgehog house with 4x 17mm screws. The hedgehog house base frame is done!

Step 5 5

Affix and seal the roof

A birch trunk is affixed to the front of the base frame using a clamp. Bore holes are pre-drilled for attaching the birch trunks using the AdvancedImpact 18. — Pre-drilling boreholes facilitates the subsequent attachment of the birch trunks.

As soon as the base frame is screwed together, the roof construction begins. Now lay the processed birch trunks on the house one by one. First, drill holes from both sides with a wood drill. Trunk by trunk, attach the birch trunks on the base frame. Use the AdvancedImpact 18 and the 4 x 50mm screws to screw it all together.

As soon as the hedgehog house’s roof is affixed, you can fill the small gaps between the trunks with moss. This properly seals the roof so that the hedgehog stay really cosy through the winter

In order to make it super comfortable, you can place the rest of the moss and leaves into the house. And the cosy winter housing is complete. Pop it in the garden and keep your eyes peeled for the new resident. But always remember: hedgehogs should never be disturbed during their hibernation.