Please help, two broodies and many questions

[GlitterKitty]

On March 20th I let my hen Primrose start sitting on an egg, she has been a faithful mommy and has sat on her egg which is due April 10th

I'm super excited but I seriously doubt the egg is fertile. my rooster has had some trouble since...geez like January. I think it's old age and he lays around all day (I'm going to start having to clip his toenails soon

) But I feel so bad that her precious egg probaly wont hatch

And I don't have a strong enough flashlight to see if it's devoloping. Well today April 3rd my other hen went completly broody like peck-your-hand-off-if-you-touch-me broody. So I want her to try it out too. Our plans are to see if Prim's egg hatches and if it doesn't we want to find someone/somewhere who has day old chicks. My question is will she accept the chicks? I want to get her 2 but she is sitting on one egg so should I get her 1? And what if she trys to kill them? When shoudl I switch them in, at night? And then because Rainy is sitting on 2 fake eggs I want to get her chicks too, should I wait until her fake eggs are due to get her eggs or can I get two chicks per hen and give them to each hen the same day? They are not in the same nest box.

Please help, I want my ladies to have beautiful babies

 

[feathers4fun]

In my (somewhat limited) experience, you can give them chicks. Yes, you can give them 2, even with just one egg. When I have done this, I wait until completely dark and just slip the chicks under her. Could do both hens at same time. How fun! Wish mine would get broody.

 

[panner123]

No problem putting the chicks under the hen well after dark. It is usually done after the hen has some chicks already. You should be able to get some chicks from your local feed store.