What do I do?

[cboriskin]

i live in the city and can only have hens. However, I board my horses out in the country. Last week, while getting hay for my horses, I noticed a lonesome egg on top of one of my bales of hay. I left it there and although the ranch hand ate 3 of the eggs by today, there were 4 eggs. I have seen the mama just once sitting on the eggs (when there were only 2), but I haven’t seen her any other time. I’m not even sure if these eggs are fertilized. The hen is coming from the neighbor’s and I’m not sure if they have a rooster there.
So, my question is, how do I know if these are fertilized? I’m assuming I just wait until mama is finished laying her clutch. Then, What do I do?

 

[Pyxis]

Are you wanting to hatch them? Or wanting the hen to hatch them? If you want the hen to hatch them, leave them where they are, but depending on her breed, she may or may not go broody. If you want to hatch them, then wait until you have the number that you want to hatch, while also not letting the oldest egg exceed ten days old, and then put them all in the incubator.

You can't tell if they're fertile unless you want to take one and crack it open and check for a blastoderm on the yolk, which would look like a small white bullseye. If it's not fertile, there would just be a small white dot, called a blastodisc.