The more instinctive hens can tell if an eggs's fertile within a few days of sitting, possibly because the temperature changes. I've never been able to get even my least instinctive hens to sit on a golf ball, they refuse to nest on it, but will accept egg shape, size and color plaster fakes. It's probably got a lot to do with what the ancestors of those chooks were gotten used to. Some of my smartest hens do know if they're laying fertile eggs. They won't tend a clutch if they haven't been mating but take all kinds of pains to ensure a good nest for a clutch produced after mating, but they're the exception, not the rule. They're generally pekin-silkie mixes.
Some hens won't ever respect a rooster, as Ceilismom said, and usually I think it's because they sense a flaw in him genetically. Some will attack a rooster they don't like when he tries to mate, and sometimes a rooster who starts trying to mate young can be extremely daunted by that for a fair while, until he realizes he's not a juvenile anymore. Was your roo raised with hens? The size of the hens compared to the roo almost never matters unless he's too big and is crushing them. As for whether the clutch is abandoned, you woul have to wait longer to know for sure, because it's not uncommon for hens to leave the eggs to go cold, especially in the early stages, without harm. Depending of course on where you live and how cold it gets there.
It takes time for a rooster to learn to mate and kelp seems to bring out all sorts of latent instincts and physical characteristics. A year old roo who hasn't figured it out is backwards, but could be that way only temporarily while he learns. Hopefully... I have had a 4-week-old rooster, and lots of 6-week-olds, trying to mate and doing everything right except the part where they produce viable sperm!
