Stardew Valley: How to Get an Incubator (Incubator Guide)

This article is part of a directory: Stardew Valley: A Complete Guide and Walkthrough

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Stardew Valley features a wide range of farm animals and livestock. While it’s not easy for new players to get all the animals, the first livestock they’ll likely acquire in the game are chickens. Chickens are known for their egg-laying abilities and provide a steady supply of fresh eggs. These eggs can be used in a variety of recipes, or placed inside an incubator.

An Incubator is a specialized tool in Stardew Valley that is used to hatch eggs into baby chickens. This is not just limited to chicken eggs – players can use incubators to hatch duck, ostrich, and even dinosaur eggs. This makes incubators an incredibly useful tool that farmers should have on their farms.

How to Get an Incubator in Stardew Valley

Incubators come free of charge with Coops that have been upgraded to either Big or Deluxe tiers. To build and upgrade a Coop, players need to visit Robin, the town’s Carpenter. The Carpenter’s Shop is open from 9 AM to 5 PM every day, except Tuesdays. The shop closes early on Fridays, at 4 PM. Coop upgrades take two days. The requirements for each tier are mentioned below.

Big Coop

Players who want to upgrade their regular Coop to a Big Coop require 400 pieces of Wood and 150 Stones. The total building cost is 10,000 g.

The Big Coop has a capacity of 8 animals and features a Feeding Bench, along with a Hay Hopper and an Incubator.

Deluxe Coop

To upgrade the Big Coop to a Deluxe Coop, players require 500 pieces of Wood and 200 Stones. The total building cost is 20,000 g.

The Deluxe Coop has a capacity of 12 animals and features a Feeding Bench, along with an Autofeed System, a Hay Hopper, and an Incubator.

How to Use the Incubator

The Incubator can be found in the upper left-hand corner inside an upgraded Coop, next to the Hay Hopper. To use the incubator, players need to hold the egg they wish to incubate and right-click on the incubator. The egg immediately transfers from the inventory and the incubation process begins. If the coop is at maximum capacity, the egg will not hatch until a space is freed up.

Once placed in an incubator, an egg cannot be removed.

Incubation Times

Although the incubation process for each egg remains same; the processing time for each type varies. The processing times for an egg to hatch using an incubator are given in the table below.

Egg Type	Baby Animal Hatched	Processing Time
Egg Brown Egg Large Egg Large Brown Egg	White Chicken Brown Chicken Blue Chicken	9,000 minutes (Equal to 5 days and 17 hours)
Void Egg	Void Chicken
Golden Egg	Golden Chicken
Duck Egg	Duck
Dinosaur Egg	Dinosaur	18,000 minutes (Equal to 11 days and 7 hours)

Always ensure that there is enough space in the coop for newly hatched animals.

Perks of the Coopmaster Profession

On reaching Farming Level 10, players have the option to choose between the Rancher and the Tiller professions. Players who pick the Rancher profession will further have two choices – to either become a Coopmaster or a Shepherd.

The Coopmaster has its own perks. It enables players to befriend coop animals quickly and overall improves the coop product quality. Additionally, Coopmasters enjoy a significant reduction in incubation times for both regular and Ostrich Incubators, allowing eggs to hatch in half the time compared to not having the Coopmaster perks.

Different Types of Incubators

In addition to the standard Incubator, Stardew Valley features two distinct types of Incubators that players can craft according to their needs. These are mentioned below.

Ostrich Incubator

The Ostrich Incubator is used to hatch Ostrich eggs into baby ostriches. While this incubator doesn’t come with any farm building, it must be placed inside a Barn after crafting. The crafting recipe for an Ostrich Incubator is obtained from Professor Snail. It requires 50 Bone Fragments, 50 pieces of Hardwood, and 20 Cinder Shards.

Egg Type	Baby Animal Hatched	Processing Time
Ostrich Egg	Ostrich	15,000 minutes (Equal to 9 days and 10 hours)

The processing time is cut in half i.e. 7,500 minutes with the Coopmaster Profession. To incubate an Ostrich Egg, players need to right-click on the Ostrich Incubator while holding the egg.

If the barn has reached maximum capacity, the baby ostrich will not hatch until a space is freed up.

Slime Incubator

The Slime Incubator is a specialized device used to hatch Slime Eggs into actual Slimes. The crafting recipe for a Slime Incubator is obtained when players reach Combat Level 8. It requires 100 Slimes and 2 Iridium Bars.

The Slime Incubator in the Slime Hutch is limited to indoor slime production, while the crafted Slime Incubator enables players to raise slimes outdoors. The incubation processing time is cut in half with the Coopmaster Profession.