title_body: Brewing mead with fruits
upvoted_answer: Let me see if I can answer your questions. I have years of experience with making beer, wine and mead...
  
  
  No, leave the apples alone until fermentation is done.
  No, the alcohol will stop any rotting. Your mead might be spoiled from another source of contamination (remember good sanitation) but as long as there is alcohol the apples won't rot.
  It is advisable to move the mead from the fermentation vessel to a second one for aging. Mead is more like wine than beer and will benefit from some aging and clarification in a second vessel. This would involve leaving the fruit behind.
  While it's not 100% necessary to add sulfites (campden tablets) to you mead, it will preserve and protect it from oxidation. Like wine they should be added when you move it to the second vessel for aging.