How should the site be chosen for artificial hedgehog rearing?
Old houses used for rearing hedgehogs can also be used after repair and renovation, which can save capital construction investment. If there are no idle old houses available, the following conditions should be noted when building a rearing farm.
1) Terrain and topography: A hedgehog rearing farm should be built on higher ground with dry soil. In mountainous or hilly areas, it should be sited on a south-facing or east-facing slope sheltered from the wind and exposed to the sun; building the farm in a valley or flat place that can avoid wind gaps is relatively ideal. If the flat ground in hills or mountainous areas is small, it can be built into a terraced shape according to the terrain. Low-lying, muddy swampy areas and places with standing water all year round are not suitable for building a hedgehog rearing farm.
2) Soil quality and water quality: The place where a hedgehog rearing farm is built must not be land where chemical plants or other livestock or poultry farms have been built; the former may have soil contaminated by chemical substances, and the latter has soil contaminated by livestock and poultry pathogenic microorganisms, which is unfavorable for rearing hedgehogs later, so these places should be avoided. Because a hedgehog rearing farm needs clean water for adding feed, cleaning and washing, and drinking, the site should be chosen near streams, rivers, lakes, or ponds, or in places with abundant clean groundwater sources. It is worth noting that when choosing a water source, a stagnant pond should not be used as the water source, because this kind of water contains many pathogenic microorganisms and is a source of disease.
3) Social conditions
1 Convenient transportation conditions: Such a place can ensure the timely transport of feed and other materials.
2 Easy access to power supply: Feed processing, farm lighting, and staff entertainment all require power, so solving electricity use is one of the indispensable conditions.
3 Good environmental conditions: There should be no livestock farms or poultry farms nearby, to prevent the introduction of homologous pathogens and infection with diseases; a certain distance should be maintained from places where residents live. The environment of a hedgehog rearing farm needs to be secluded, and it is not suitable to be beside busy traffic roads with many vehicles or near factories and mining areas.
4 Land conditions: The land should be spacious and open, and the land area should leave room to consider issues related to future development. The farm can be built on barren, idle land so as not to compete with crops for land.
5 Feed: It should be convenient to purchase locally on the spot, so as to reduce transport distance and lower costs.