diff --git a/marklogic-client-api/src/main/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/impl/DataMovementServices.java b/marklogic-client-api/src/main/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/impl/DataMovementServices.java
index eb58c15e2..de1754a50 100644
--- a/marklogic-client-api/src/main/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/impl/DataMovementServices.java
+++ b/marklogic-client-api/src/main/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/impl/DataMovementServices.java
@@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ QueryConfig initConfig(String method, SearchQueryDefinition qdef) {
 			logger.debug("initialized maxDocToUriBatchRatio to : {}", maxDocToUriBatchRatio);
 		}
 
+		// Per GitHub bug 1872 and MLE-26460, the server may return -1 when there are fewer server threads than forests.
+		// A value of -1 will cause later problems when constructing a LinkedBlockingQueue with a negative capacity.
+		// So defaulting this to 1 to avoid later errors.
+		if (maxDocToUriBatchRatio <= 0) {
+			maxDocToUriBatchRatio = 1;
+		}
+
 		JsonNode defaultDocBatchSizeNode = result.get("defaultDocBatchSize");
 		int defaultDocBatchSize = -1;
 		if (defaultDocBatchSizeNode != null && defaultDocBatchSizeNode.isInt()) {
diff --git a/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/FewerServerThreadsThanForestsTest.java b/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/FewerServerThreadsThanForestsTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b7d7b1650
--- /dev/null
+++ b/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/datamovement/FewerServerThreadsThanForestsTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2010-2026 Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
+ */
+package com.marklogic.client.datamovement;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
+import com.marklogic.client.DatabaseClient;
+import com.marklogic.client.test.AbstractClientTest;
+import com.marklogic.client.test.Common;
+import com.marklogic.mgmt.ManageClient;
+import com.marklogic.mgmt.resource.appservers.ServerManager;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+
+class FewerServerThreadsThanForestsTest extends AbstractClientTest {
+
+	@Test
+	void test() {
+		DatabaseClient client = Common.newClient();
+		final int forestCount = client.newDataMovementManager().readForestConfig().listForests().length;
+		if (forestCount < 2) {
+			logger.info("This test requires multiple forests so that the server thread count can be set to the " +
+				"number of forests minus one; skipping test");
+			return;
+		}
+
+		adjustServerThreads(forestCount - 1);
+		try {
+			DataMovementManager dmm = client.newDataMovementManager();
+			AtomicInteger uriCount = new AtomicInteger();
+			QueryBatcher queryBatcher = dmm.newQueryBatcher(client.newQueryManager().newStructuredQueryBuilder().collection("/optic/test"))
+				.withThreadCount(1)
+				.onUrisReady(batch -> uriCount.addAndGet(batch.getItems().length));
+			dmm.startJob(queryBatcher);
+			queryBatcher.awaitCompletion();
+			dmm.stopJob(queryBatcher);
+
+			assertEquals(4, uriCount.get(), "Verifies that the 4 test documents were found, and more importantly, " +
+				"that the new default maxDocToUriBatchRatio of 1 was applied correctly when the number of " +
+				"server threads is less than the number of forests. This is for bug 1872 in GitHub. Prior to this " +
+				"fix, the maxDocToUriBatchRatio of -1 returned by the server caused an error when the " +
+				"LinkedBlockingQueue was constructed with a negative capacity.");
+		} finally {
+			// We can safely use this number because we know the test-app doesn't change this.
+			final int defaultServerThreadCount = 32;
+			adjustServerThreads(defaultServerThreadCount);
+		}
+	}
+
+	private void adjustServerThreads(final int threads) {
+		logger.info("Adjusting server threads to {}", threads);
+		Common.newAdminManager().invokeActionRequiringRestart(() -> {
+			ManageClient manageClient = Common.newManageClient();
+			ObjectNode payload = Common.newServerPayload().put("threads", threads);
+			new ServerManager(manageClient).save(payload.toString());
+			return true;
+		});
+	}
+}
diff --git a/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/test/Common.java b/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/test/Common.java
index 2437bf255..b5a45af95 100644
--- a/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/test/Common.java
+++ b/marklogic-client-api/src/test/java/com/marklogic/client/test/Common.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2010-2025 Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2010-2026 Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
  */
 package com.marklogic.client.test;
 
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 import com.marklogic.client.io.DocumentMetadataHandle;
 import com.marklogic.mgmt.ManageClient;
 import com.marklogic.mgmt.ManageConfig;
+import com.marklogic.mgmt.admin.AdminConfig;
+import com.marklogic.mgmt.admin.AdminManager;
 import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
 import org.w3c.dom.DOMException;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
@@ -258,6 +260,10 @@ public static ManageClient newManageClient() {
 		return new ManageClient(new ManageConfig(HOST, 8002, SERVER_ADMIN_USER, SERVER_ADMIN_PASS));
 	}
 
+	public static AdminManager newAdminManager() {
+		return new AdminManager(new AdminConfig(HOST, 8001, SERVER_ADMIN_USER, SERVER_ADMIN_PASS));
+	}
+
 	public static ObjectNode newServerPayload() {
 		ObjectNode payload = new ObjectMapper().createObjectNode();
 		payload.put("server-name", SERVER_NAME);