Breeding Buttons - fertilized eggs- how long after mating?

[Alien_she]

Question about breeding button quail- I have/had a trio of buttons, 1 male 2 female, and I want to hatch their babies. I've seen the male mate with one of the females many times, not too sure about the other one. I've collected about 7 eggs, but they're from both females.
Not sure if this is a silly question or not but when do the eggs get fertilized after mating? For instance if I see them mate, and she lays an egg a few hours later, should I assume that egg may be fertilized? Or would the next day's egg be fertilized? Can 1 mating result in more than 1 fertilized egg? I'm pretty clueless as to how their reproduction system works.

 

[Patiocoturnix]

Question about breeding button quail- I have/had a trio of buttons, 1 male 2 female, and I want to hatch their babies. I've seen the male mate with one of the females many times, not too sure about the other one. I've collected about 7 eggs, but they're from both females.
Not sure if this is a silly question or not but when do the eggs get fertilized after mating? For instance if I see them mate, and she lays an egg a few hours later, should I assume that egg may be fertilized? Or would the next day's egg be fertilized? Can 1 mating result in more than 1 fertilized egg? I'm pretty clueless as to how their reproduction system works.

The best way to tell if your eggs are fertilized is to incubate or crack one open and look for a bullseye. Mating can result in fertilized eggs for a while. Not just one egg

 

[Nabiki]

If it's the first time mating, I would wait a week or two before incubating eggs. It sounds like your birds are established, however, so the eggs of the one hen are probably fertile. The other one's may be as well, but buttons usually pair up.

The eggs will keep being fertile for a couple weeks after the last mating, so if you remove the male for any reason, you can still expect fertile eggs for a couple weeks.

 

[007Sean]

I've been Nabiki'd, I have nothing to add!

 

[Alien_she]

Thanks so much folks!
The reason I asked is, my roo met with an unfortunate end so upset about it. But with him out if the nest not chasing them one of my lady buttons went broody. Didn't have the heart to take the eggs out so I let her sit on them and put 7 I had already collected in the incubator. 1 in the incubator hatched yesterday, I carefully tested out putting the baby in with her and success! Riker is a wonderful mommy welcome to the world little Data!
Here's my #1 with her baby on her back, and showing how to eat

 

[Nabiki]

Button chicks are so adorably cute.