Brooder size

[Hamster0425]

Hello!

I'm thisclose to convincing my husband we need meat chickens, and I'd like to build a permanent coop in our shop. We've used plastic tubs before for our layers and it's kind a PITA so I'd like to step up our game a bit.

The plan is to get 25 Freedom Rangers. My understanding is they can go outside around 3-4 weeks. With that in mind, how big of a brooder do we need to keep them in there for that duration? Is 4x8 sufficient? Or should we go up to 5x10?
What if we want to build it big enough we could move up to 50 meaties at a time?

Thanks for your help! I tried searching but couldn't come up with a solid answer.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'd count on 1 sq ft per chick until around 4 weeks old but meat birds can get pretty big pretty fast. An alternative is to do multiple smaller set ups, to reduce risk of crushing/trampling - so for 25 birds maybe 2 brooders, 50 maybe 3 or 4?