IMO just like any plant you purchase it is best to remove flowers or int his case fruit until the plant has had a chance to get established where you put it. I live in Canada in Zone 6 where we grow commercial cherries but I really have no idea what Zone 5 is in the US we grow lapins very well here even with late season frosts once in a while the biggest issue with cherries is rain once the fruit is set and growing. If you have not grwon fruit trees before I would not start with cherries as they need a lot of pruning and bug control

Thank you for the information! I unfortunately cannot return the tree, I might try to rehome, otherwise I will start to do lots of research for this tree! Especially the spraying. I was going to remove the fruit, but I noticed the birds ate the most of the few Cherries that were on there.

Don't rehome it yet. Do your research and find a good spot for it (cherries need good drainage and sun). I am not growing sweet cherries, only tart ones, but so far I have had no problems with bugs or need for spraying - while I do need to spray my peach, apples and grapes for fungal diseases, and protect the apples from insects. Any fruit tree needs pruning if you want it to be productive. You will need to buy netting to keep the birds from eating all the fruit in future.

"You will need to buy netting to keep the birds from eating all the fruit in future." Absolutely. I have about 30 cherry trees of various types and while they take almost no maintenance besides pruning the dam birds will strip them clean (even eating the unripe fruit) in a day if the trees are not netted. Apple trees take far more effort to keep them free of fungi and bugs but at least the birds don 't steal everything.

but at least the birds don 't steal everything

Haha, but in my yard, either squirrels or racoons do! Stripped every one of the half grown green apples off the trees last year, tasted each then dropped them (I really think that was squirrels).

It will probably fruit in between 3 to 5 years.

The type of rootstock it is grafted onto will affect that. More dwarfing rootstock will typically mean it will begin producing sooner.

If it is growing on it's own roots (not grafted), that could mean a much longer wait time, and the tree will be huge before it begins fruiting. Maybe 9 to 11 years.

Don't be surprised if a young tree does not produce fruit one year after producing some fruits the previous year. The tree might not have the energy yet to make fruits. Fruit production could be only every other year for a while.

I've heard that you can plant "decoy" plants like mulberries to remove the pest pressure on the fruit you're trying to grow. I've just planted a few dwarf mulberries; we'll see how that works out. I have a Stella cherry, and it's fruited (not well) in the past. Japanese beetles are very attracted to it, and many other fruits I have growing. I have a big Japanese beetle problem where I live, so this past fall I spread some milky spore. It is an all-natural substance that affects the larvae, and hopefully will also discourage the number of moles. It stays in the soil and actually increases its effectiveness over time. It is very expensive, but will be cheap if it works and is something that I don't need to re-apply. You have to put a tsp. down every four feet in a grid pattern across your property. It sounded harder than it actually was. I got three large boxes of the stuff and it was about $100 a box. I'm hoping to see some cherries this upcoming year. I told myself that I would not prune the tree this winter and see how that affects it. I may have been cutting off most of the fruiting wood! I also haven't sprayed with anything other than Neem oil, which in my experience, was worthless. I have to find out more about copper spray and Kaolin clay spray...