Glad... when I did meat birds last year, since I KNEW they were only going to be around for 8-9 weeks, I didn't go with the minimum. I started with a 3.5x4 coop (dog house that you can get a
TSC/FFH with hinged lid, used an old cupboard door and lock to close up), that I used from my broodies and their chicks. Anyway, I started with 10 birds in there. They are active little buggers when they are little. I then made a quasi run that went right off the front of it, that was 2x4, sat tight up against it. Kept the regular birds out, and kept hawks out too. Later, they ended up with a 4 foot high fence and 20 sq feet of run space, then when they were about 4 weeks old, they had 200sq feet of run space, next to the egg coop, under a lot of trees to provide them serious shade. They also used the bate motel to stay cool during the day. I let them out at sun up, then didn't wander in until DARK. Sometimes I would have to convince them to go in. Now, I also ended up taking 3 skids, to make a floor in front of the original coop, and two walls. I stapled chicken wire to the insides of the skids to keep grasping hands from being able to reach through the slats and grab at the birds at night, and a solid wood roof. I hinged another skid with wire to the side wall skids and locks screw in to close that up during the day, so... an expansion if you will, that could be taken off and added as needed for the birds growing out... I wish I had a pic, but I hope you can understand. But all in all, they went into the coop at night, were out all day. If you are planning tractors, I think you'd be ok if you moved the tractor ever few days to keep them always on fresh grass. They are pooping machines. It'll also help to keep your grass from dying off really bad by moving them in a pattern across the yard. Where you plan that out, don't mow the grass. Let it grow long. They'll eat it, AND taste so much better too. IF you get lucky, and have a girl go broody, set her on fake eggs for 3 weeks, slip meat birds under her one night, and have her do the raising. They'll learn foraging from her, and you'll have less feed cost but much better tasting birds.
