Possible Visiting Rooster?? A Few Questions...

[Luna9]

About a week ago now I heard a rooster every morning for about 3 days kinda hanging out in the woods behind my house. I never saw him but do know he was there and I know my hen likes to wander around in the woods as well. I havent heard him for about a week and since hes left my free ranging hen has begun sitting on her eggs. So first question is how likely is it that they are fertile??

She is a young hen...just over a year old now and this is the first time shes done this, but has been laying for quite a while now. She is VERY protective of the area where she is nesting and really doesnt like visitors of any sort (she is normally a very friendly hen). She wont leave the nest she has made but for only a few minutes around 2ish each day to get a drink, some food and "bathe" in the dirt and she quickly gets right back to sitting on the eggs, though never really strays far to begin with.

Someone linked me to the page on here where a member shows what to look for in a fertile egg. Im not wanting to disrupt the nest and cause any issues with my hen and these eggs but Im very curious if they are fertile and how many are so that I can make proper preparations. Any tips or ideas on how to go about this are greatly appreciated. I have bred and raised Button Quail in the past so I do have some experience with hatching birds, but I unfortunately know longer have my incubator.

This is her sitting on her nest. (the couple of eggs that you see infront of her are older but I didnt know where her nest was for a while so couldnt pull them and now I dont want to touch anything, lol)

 

[Snegurochka]

I don't think you'll be able to tell fertility until they're a little more developed, and then only by candling. (That is, unless you want to crack one open to check the yolk). But she definitely doesn't have to be fertile to go broody. Mine used to try hatching eggs long before I ever had a rooster.

Is she nesting outside? I'd move her to a safer place asap; right now she's just asking for a coon to grab her at night. You will risk her abandoning the nest if you move it, but better that than losing your hen.

 

[Luna9]

Yes she was nesting outside. I Just got in from pulling the eggs and getting her back in the pen.

I talked to my husband when he got home this afternoon and we decided to just pull her eggs. We figured the chances of them being fertile were slim and we wanted to get her back in the chicken pen with the others. Only 1 of the eggs was fertile and it looked to be about 4 days along (by the pics on a thread on here).

Thanks for you help!