Brooding whilst raising chicks

[Johncoop]

recently my black jersey giant went broody sitting on 20 fertlized eggs. about 4 days ago the 21 day mark came and the first chick hatched and in the span of 3 days 4 other chicks hatched. although a couple of chicks hatched there is still a good sum of eggs under her though i doupt most of em will make it i cant bring myself to do anything about it since i dont know if chicks can still hatch after 25 days of brooding. a couple of sources have told me that all baby chickens that do not hatch after 26 days are not gonna make it and chickens brooding whilst having chicks is dangerous for the chicks, i still see movement in some eggs and one that i can hear literal chirps inside of.
so what do i do? do i just wait it out? or do i have to take action?

 

[kattabelly]

Is there a chance some of the eggs were added slightly later, after she'd already started sitting? Maybe another hen added eggs, or she might even have collected them herself from another nest box. If so, they might not all be on day 25 yet. The fact you can see movement and hear peeping from inside some suggests that they might still hatch.

If some of the chicks are four days old now they definitely need to be eating and drinking. Is she taking them off the nest, even for short periods? Making sure the chicks have access to food and water (and that they know it's there!) pretty much right next to the nest, and closing off the area so they can't stray too far while she's still sitting, might be the best option to buy you a few more days if she's willing to keep sitting for that much longer. If some eggs are more than a few days behind you might need to let them finish developing in an incubator though, if you have one. There's a chance she would still accept them once they've hatched but she might not - the greater the age difference, the more likely it is that she would reject them or they'd not be able to keep up with the older chicks.

 

[redinator]

recently my black jersey giant went broody sitting on 20 fertlized eggs. about 4 days ago the 21 day mark came and the first chick hatched and in the span of 3 days 4 other chicks hatched. although a couple of chicks hatched there is still a good sum of eggs under her though i doupt most of em will make it i cant bring myself to do anything about it since i dont know if chicks can still hatch after 25 days of brooding. a couple of sources have told me that all baby chickens that do not hatch after 26 days are not gonna make it and chickens brooding whilst having chicks is dangerous for the chicks, i still see movement in some eggs and one that i can hear literal chirps inside of.
so what do i do? do i just wait it out? or do i have to take action?

I'd candle the remaining eggs to get an idea how far along they are. Here's a link to a chart I use and it's pretty detailed and accurate. https://thehomesteadingrd.com/candling-chicken-eggs-day-by-day/
and everything else @kattabelly said. Good luck

 

[Johncoop]

Is there a chance some of the eggs were added slightly later, after she'd already started sitting? Maybe another hen added eggs, or she might even have collected them herself from another nest box. If so, they might not all be on day 25 yet. The fact you can see movement and hear peeping from inside some suggests that they might still hatch.

If some of the chicks are four days old now they definitely need to be eating and drinking. Is she taking them off the nest, even for short periods? Making sure the chicks have access to food and water (and that they know it's there!) pretty much right next to the nest, and closing off the area so they can't stray too far while she's still sitting, might be the best option to buy you a few more days if she's willing to keep sitting for that much longer. If some eggs are more than a few days behind you might need to let them finish developing in an incubator though, if you have one. There's a chance she would still accept them once they've hatched but she might not - the greater the age difference, the more likely it is that she would reject them or they'd not be able to keep up with the older chicks

first of all yes there have been multiple time when eggs where added while the chicken was still brooding, and i also found this morning a couple of baby chicks that totaly do not look like they’re hers sitting right under her so i believe she took them from the nest close to hers
second of all yes she does take the chicks out of the nest to eat some times and they definitely know where the food and water is since they have both a feeder and water source
but sadly i dont have an incubator since im too poor to buy although i believe i can make one, that is if you have any suggestions for making one
either way thanks for the priceless information i really apreciate you helping me out

 

[Johncoop]

I'd candle the remaining eggs to get an idea how far along they are. Here's a link to a chart I use and it's pretty detailed and accurate. https://thehomesteadingrd.com/candling-chicken-eggs-day-by-day/
and everything else @kattabelly said. Good luck

this morning i candled a bunch of em turns out about four out of the thirteen eggs were dud’s. so i have about nine probably viable eggs, and according to the chart you provided me with i concluded that most of the eggs are in the "days 15 to 21" period wich is a vit of an uplifter knowing i wont be waiting that long to see some progress in the next couple of days
also thanks man i really needed this advice, good luck to you too and god bless you

 

[redinator]

this morning i candled a bunch of em turns out about four out of the thirteen eggs were dud’s. so i have about nine probably viable eggs, and according to the chart you provided me with i concluded that most of the eggs are in the "days 15 to 21" period wich is a vit of an uplifter knowing i wont be waiting that long to see some progress in the next couple of days
also thanks man i really needed this advice, good luck to you too and god bless you

I'd love to see pictures of the cute little fluff balls once they hatch. My youngest are two weeks and they're not very fluffy anymore, lol. I need a fluff fix, lol.

 

[kattabelly]

first of all yes there have been multiple time when eggs where added while the chicken was still brooding, and i also found this morning a couple of baby chicks that totaly do not look like they’re hers sitting right under her so i believe she took them from the nest close to hers
second of all yes she does take the chicks out of the nest to eat some times and they definitely know where the food and water is since they have both a feeder and water source
but sadly i dont have an incubator since im too poor to buy although i believe i can make one, that is if you have any suggestions for making one
either way thanks for the priceless information i really apreciate you helping me out

Ok so she has five chicks that are up to 5 days old now, and she's taking them off the nest for short periods but the rest of the time still sitting on another nine eggs which you think might hatch anything from now up to in about a week's time - is that right?

There's a good chance she'll abandon the nest soon, so that's something you should be prepared for. Even if you were able to save the eggs and hatch them in a DIY or borrowed incubator, you'd likely need to care for them yourself. At a minimum that would mean providing a separate area for them that the other birds can't get in, and some kind of heat source like a lamp or brooder plate unless your climate is really warm. Giving them to someone else who wants chicks to either raise themself or to give to their broody hen would be another option, if you do end up with late hatchers that your hen won't accept. (I'm assuming you don't have any other hens that are broody at the moment)

I've never made a DIY incubator, so I can't offer much advice there. There are probably threads on here if you do a search, if you decide to try doing that. I know where I am, I could put a post on Facebook if my incubator broke and probably find someone just down the road who'd let me finish hatching eggs in theirs if I needed to - that might be another possibility, idk. I think the main thing right now is to decide how much effort you're willing and able to put in to either keeping the remaining unhatched chicks alive yourself or finding someone locally who can, or whether you might need to just let nature take its course.

If you let a broody hen hatch eggs in future, you could try what a lot of people do and mark the eggs she's sitting on. That way it's easy to check if any more eggs have been added to the nest and remove them straight away.

 

[Johncoop]

Ok so she has five chicks that are up to 5 days old now, and she's taking them off the nest for short periods but the rest of the time still sitting on another nine eggs which you think might hatch anything from now up to in about a week's time - is that right?

There's a good chance she'll abandon the nest soon, so that's something you should be prepared for. Even if you were able to save the eggs and hatch them in a DIY or borrowed incubator, you'd likely need to care for them yourself. At a minimum that would mean providing a separate area for them that the other birds can't get in, and some kind of heat source like a lamp or brooder plate unless your climate is really warm. Giving them to someone else who wants chicks to either raise themself or to give to their broody hen would be another option, if you do end up with late hatchers that your hen won't accept. (I'm assuming you don't have any other hens that are broody at the moment)

I've never made a DIY incubator, so I can't offer much advice there. There are probably threads on here if you do a search, if you decide to try doing that. I know where I am, I could put a post on Facebook if my incubator broke and probably find someone just down the road who'd let me finish hatching eggs in theirs if I needed to - that might be another possibility, idk. I think the main thing right now is to decide how much effort you're willing and able to put in to either keeping the remaining unhatched chicks alive yourself or finding someone locally who can, or whether you might need to just let nature take its course.

If you let a broody hen hatch eggs in future, you could try what a lot of people do and mark the eggs she's sitting on. That way it's easy to check if any more eggs have been added to the nest and remove them straight away.

i will take your advice in mind, but it seems im gonna need to make my own brooder since i heard its a pretty easy thing to make, and nobody in a 100 mile vicinity has chickens or an incubtor since i dont live in the country side, though its gonna need a lot of time and effort to maintain the brooding process since you have to manualy turn the eggs at a good rate like 12 or 20 times a day and thats one turn per hour so about 12 or 20 hours of turning and flipping wich has been proved to bring better results than the normal 3 times a day rate yet it needs a heck ton of free time that i dont have
also one last question
have you ever had a situation like this before in your coop? if so what did you do about it

 

[Johncoop]

I'd love to see pictures of the cute little fluff balls once they hatch. My youngest are two weeks and they're not very fluffy anymore, lol. I need a fluff fix, lol.

Will do! thats if they hatch of course,and about their fluff i have always wanted for them to stay like little small fast cotton balls that run around and cause mayhem with each other lol,and may i also inquire what breed of chicken were your chicks? and also have you ever raised any pure bred black jersey’s? since mine are a mix of an australorp rooster and a black jersey hen i never got to see how baby black jersey’s look and i was wondering how would they look

 

[redinator]

Will do! thats if they hatch of course, and may i also inquire what breed of chicken were your chicks? and also have you ever raised any pure bred black jersey’s? since mine are a mix of an australorp rooster and a black jersey hen i never got to see how baby black jersey’s look and i was wondering how would they look

Mine are barnyard mixes. I'll happily still post pictures though.

I'm looking up some simple homemade incubators and brooders . . . .brooders are less complicated (a bin <with a wire or mesh lid for ventilation and to keep chicks contained>, bedding, brooder plate, chick feeders and waters), the incubators are a bit more finicky with needing to keep humidity set correctly and egg turning . . since these eggs are closer to hatching the egg turning isn't as critical as it is in the beginning of the process.

ETA: text in bold