How many will fit?

[Jenifer72]

If my incubator says 42 chicken eggs capacity....how many silkie eggs could I fit? MORE? ( i hope)

 

[Dar]

well its true that silkie eggs are smaller i would not want to over crowd them in the bator. How many were you thinking about putting in?

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! No turner? A lot (LOT) more eggs will fit in there.
70-ish...

Lisa

 

[Jenifer72]

There is a turner....its a Brower Top Hatch...I'm thinking possibly 10 to 15 more eggs than recommended for chicken eggs

 

[Akane]

I don't know about that particular incubator but generally with a turner it's the same number no matter what size the egg unless you are using quail cups because each egg sits individually. I think there are some bators though that don't turn using individual slots for the eggs so those would fit more.

It is a bad idea to crowd the bator unless you know you will be removing some bad eggs throughout the hatch. I once crammed my hovabator from end to end and side to side with 200 quail eggs to the point they were slanting up the sides a little. That was the biggest mess ever. I ended up punching 2 extra holes in my hova during the hatch to vent the humidity in the middle of the hatch. I made them vent plug size so I could just use some extra ones to plug it up later and not ruin the bator. Also unhatched eggs will get shoved in to the empty shell of hatched eggs suffocating the hatching chick. You really have to babysit when you have a well filled bator hatching and expect lower hatch percentages. My only 100% hatches were 1 dozen or less eggs. The humidity goes up and down with the hatch and it's hard not to drown or dry out some when you have a lot of chicks hatching. Especially if it's a slow hatch that lasts more than a day.