I am not as experienced as many when it comes to showing poultry, but here’s what we did this year. My large coop is 20 feet long and is divided into 4 five foot sections. The first two sections have upper and lower 2.5 x 5 pens. The lower pens each have an outside run that is a 5x12. Two months before the fair this year, we separated my son’s projects and gave them each a bottom pen of their own so there wasn‘t a threat of feather picking or muff pulling. I had a roost pole in one of them earlier this year, but really didn't see a big benefit in it as they did most of their wing flapping without it.
A couple of weeks before the fair, we put them up in separate upper pens and wouldn’t let them go outside anymore. We interact and handle all of our chicks a lot as they grow, so we thought it best not to handle them too much real close to show time so we didn’t risk hurting any feathers. I’ve heard that exhibitors sometimes put them into show-size cages a head of time so they will get used to them, but I haven’t tried that, and I think ours got the message of being caged up and not allowed out. And they seemed to adjust real well at the fair when they were put into smaller cages.
This is what works for us, not suggesting or recommending for others to do :-)