Oakland - I love the idea of 'letting them out for a few hours' ( we have an orchard and a patch of woodland in the next field which would be a joy for them) - but I'm scared I wont get them back in their space!! We've had our 4 for 6 weeks now and they seem pretty settled, but I have no idea how to start the walking with a board thing. They do come to the bucket at feed time, but dont always come over to me when they are not. How do you get yours back?
You need to bucket train them first.
When you feed you pigs, if you always feed in the same place, when you arrive the pigs run to that place, and wait for the bucket to arrive.
If however you feed in a different place each day, and go in and shake a bucket, the pigs learn to follow the bucket, so are bucket trained.
Now when they are let out to eat the acorns, i just rattle then bucket in front of them and they follow it home to feed and bed.
We do the same with our veg patch in the winter, a couple of pigs are walked to it in the morning on fine days, stay there turning it over and manuring it, and walked back top bed at night.