How do you ease needy, imprinted goslings into staying outside full time?

[Miss Lydia]

Thankfully no badgers here or wolverines. Saw a wildlife special about them once. I don’t mind the wildlife as long as they stick to their natural prey!

 

[Leraje]

I lied, I lied!

Last night we found a frickin' HEDGEHOG gnawing on one of our chicken's legs! I'm not even kidding! She was ballistic, had gotten herself stuck in the wire fence seperating the geese and the chickens. He didn't let go, either, until we showed up as big angry humans.

We've had this happen last autumn as well, but that was our poor little handicapped rooster and a very hungry hedgehog who should've been in hibernation but apparently wasn't fat enough to do so yet, so we thought it was a one time thing.

However this chicken (while bantam, so she's not big) is a very fierce and super healthy and it's the middle of the summer, so I had NOT expected any hedgehogs to be desperate.

Our chickens have been sleeping outside in the bushes (they tend to do that when the weather grows hot, and we don't actively keep them in their coop at night because... you kow... we THOUGHT we didn't have any predators who eat chickens in our village....) and they *do* turn off at night, so they must not have noticed it coming up to them.

Ok so wtf. Hedgehogs are NOT cool. We looked online and apparently this is a thing that happens more! They bite a chicken leg, roll themselves up in a ball so the chicken can't get it off, and then they just slowly gnaw through the animal.

Ugh I'm totally turned off hedgehogs now. I thought they were cute and ate slugs. NO LONGER.

Edit: the chicken is fine btw, fortunately the hedgehog didn't actually spend a lot of time on its leg before we got there. Pffff.
Anyone want a hedgehog? I can ship him to the US no problem