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Everything I've ever read says 1/2 sq. ft for the first 4 weeks and 3/4 sq. ft after that while in the brooder. So by your calculation 6 Barred Rocks would need 15 sq. ft. of space or more than a 4 by 4 area. I'm sure that would be great, but where do you brood 25 heavy breed chicks?
You brood heavy chickens partially in a brooding pen and then in their coop.
The only real requirement for brooding other than water, food, or space is proper temperature.
I currently have 7 heavies and 7 lights and they really need a lot space if they are confined and brooding is confined housing.
The space is needed to severely reduce the chances that a chick will be eaten by its fellow flock members, if you take a look in this forum section
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=10 and even other posts in this section you'll find all sorts of complaints about feather picking, eating, pecking, cannibalism, missing feathers, etc ... most of these post wouldn't be there if the poster had provided enough room for their birds. They grow fast and if you start off with small space you'll eventually have to increase it (there are posts on here about having to increase the size of brooders after a week or two or three .....). The way to get a handle on a lot of chicken issues is to provide the chickens plenty of room and the proper temperatures. I did my brooding in a 28 square foot circle brooder until the girls outgrew it at 3 weeks, at that point I had two choices increase the size of my circle or put the girls into their big girl coop. Since I could maintain the temperature for them in the coop I put them into it.
They have been outside since then with a few exceptions for wounded birds that have been allowed into a 32 square foot temporarily walled off section of our garage which is used as a hospital.
ETA: Last year when I was doing my research into raising chickens I talked to several people and read several books. One of the people I talked to said give them plenty of room, another said they don't need that much room.
So then the questions became about how things went while they were raising the birds, the one that said they didn't need much room had all kinds of trouble with bloody birds and birds being pecked to death.
So you can do as you wish, I wanted a nice relaxing hobby and not a front row seat at a slaughter house. My chickens get the room along with good eats and clean water. They produce eggs and follow us around always looking for a treat. They are also quite the actors.
