Does it matter if my incubator is under-crowded?

[DJ30]

Hello everyone, on my incubator user manual, my incubator says it has to be at least 80% capacity, but I only have 2 eggs left over from my last batch, does it matter or do I need to buy new eggs?

 

[igorsMistress]

Hello everyone, on my incubator user manual, my incubator says it has to be at least 80% capacity, but I only have 2 eggs left over from my last batch, does it matter or do I need to buy new eggs?

Try it and see. What is true for one isn’t always true for all.

 

[DJ30]

Hello everyone, on my incubator user manual, my incubator says it has to be at least 80% capacity, but I only have 2 eggs left over from my last batch, does it matter or do I need to buy new eggs?

UPDATE: There wasn't an embryo on the 9th day, but from now on I'm always going to have 12 eggs just in case. (Keeping in mind that it could be different for someone else)

 

[Der Vogelhof]

No it matters if it’s overcrowded due to gas exchange. The recommendation to have it full probably has to do with the thermal mass providing part of the temp stability but if you keep the incubator in a place that’s above 70F and has stable temps and you don’t see the incubator temp struggling to stay regular, it’s fine. I often have as few as one or two eggs in an incubator sometimes, it’s fine.