I think your still taking a chance, if your mama is sitting on eggs and they are hatching she might take new ones but at 5 days old and hatched in a bator and not under a broody there is the biggest chance the chicks would not accept the mama, plus the age difference, but your the only one who can make that decision, just be ready to step in if help is needed. and Congrats on more eggs hatching.
That is one reason I made a broody coop out of our first small coop we had, once they get serious and stay on the nest I move them to the broody coop that way i can leave them closed up for 3-4 days till they get use to their new place then open the door and let them come out when they want to, although i have had to go back in and get them off of a nest a time or 2 till they figure out where they belong. If i have more than 2 broodys then I just leave her and hope for the best, at least I am not working so i can check often to make sure they are in the right nest. Make a brooder out of an xlarge or large dog crate if you have one taking up space, they work great. there just needs to be enough room to put food and water and give the hen room then after she gets settled you can let her out 1or 2 times a day to do her business. I've used dog crates often and keep them inside the coop.
In this cold it's possible they may have gotten too cold. but in the spring- summer when mine was moving from nest to nest sitting on just laids eggs while her eggs and nest was occupied with someone laying eggs she would probably be off the nest for a couple hrs at a time and believe it or not those eggs hatched. Can you use some chicken wire
VERY NormalWow I hope mini will be ok , I put her in a pet taxi with some food and water , I thought she would have room to poop and eat and drink but she just seemed to sit there so after like 3 days I opend the taxi and left the door open and put the food and water out infront of it , well with a half screetch half squack she came out about five minutes later and started pooping, it would be the eqivelant of me pooping a duffle bag. 4 Large poops later and about 10 mintues of walking around and I put her back in with her eggs.
I mean Really is this normal for broody poop or was poor mini about to explode
Having a designated place for broodys I think is nice, I like the idea of being able to fit at least 2 of my broodies in the small coop I put a wall down the middle so there is 2 rooms completely private. If your working that will get pretty old having to run home to make sure she is on the right nest, so if you can then I'd go with the plan with the brooder inside the coop, I actually have nest boxes set up inside my goose house so their are nest boxes in the main coop and in the goose house They go into the goose house and use those nest boxes too. If you lock the rest of the girls out where would they lay their eggs?
