Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue is back in full production almost two years after bird flu outbreak 

The last surviving commercial duck farm on Long Island is hatching up its comeback. 

For the last 19 months, Crescent Duck Farm owner Doug Corwin has been rebuilding his flock that was decimated by an H5N1 outbreak back in January 2025. 

After undergoing a quarantine, vigorous disinfection process, several rounds of testing and following the necessary USDA requirements for the facility, all while simultaneously salvaging and hatching a new generation of ducklings off-site, Mr. Corwin commenced full production at his Aquebogue farm a little over two weeks ago. 

“Now, I’m going to make money again,” the fourth-generation farmer told the Riverhead News-Review on Friday. 

At the time of the outbreak, the farm’s operators had to humanely euthanize all of the live birds in the flock, which forced a lay-off of 55 employees out of his 72-member staff. Just a year ago, he only had 18 people on the payroll.

Today, Crescent Duck Farm’s workforce is back up to 62 employees, only 10 less than what the business started with, Mr. Corwin said. In the last two weeks, he has hired 39 workers, 37 of which were previously laid off. 

“I thought that was pretty amazing,” he said. “I only had to hire two new people.” 

Mr. Corwin originally planned to launch his full production this past June. However, this winter’s harsh conditions made food and fresh water sources for local fowl scarce, which made wild birds more susceptible to the airborne H5N1 virus and caused an uptick in bird flu cases. 

Looking back, he said the decision to delay his plans by a few months ultimately was the right one. 

As the farm prepares to enter a reintroduction phase to its clients and the local community, Mr. Corwin said he has not dropped his defenses against the persistent threat of avian flu across the country. He continue to take precautions, such as implementing measures to make the farm “less wildlife friendly.” 

“I purposely started our production at roughly 78% because I realized it would get 100% of my business back overnight, so instead of having 72 employees, I’ve got 62 employees right now,” Mr. Corwin said. “We made a lot of changes, we had a farm that was 95% bio secure, now I think we’ve got a farm that is 98% bio secure, so I’m pretty confident that we’re gonna push forward and do well.” 

Back in February 2025, Crescent Duck Farm hatched a small 3,700 batch of ducklings from 15,000 saved and sanitized legacy genetic eggs from their facility — just enough to get the second generation going, Mr. Crowin said at the time. 

A few months later, the first full clutch of new eggs went into the incubator. Since then, two large flocks of breeding stock have been raised off site, laying their own eggs. The farm is getting back to normal flock sizes, Mr. Corwin said.

Miloski’s Poultry Farm in Calverton is one of the neighboring businesses who stepped in to help the Corwin family, who have been longtime friends. 

“When they were in quarantine, we raised the remaining ducks that they had down here,” said owner Mark Miloski. “We raised his last batch of baby ducks that he saved for this new generation.” 

Fresh Crescent Farm duck is available for sale at Miloski’s from Wednesdays through the weekend, the owner said. 

Crescent Duck is all that’s left of a once thriving Long Island industry, which in the 1950s consisted of more than 90 duck farms. Thirty duck farms were operating in Moriches, Eastport and Riverhead when Crescent Duck opened in 1908. 

Owner Jerry Dicecco Jr. of Jerry and the Mermaid in Riverhead said he remembers seeing the unfortunate news of bird flu wiping out Crescent Duck Farm’s flock and fearing the “end of a legacy” on the East End. 

Even though his family’s restaurant primarily serves seafood, Mr. Dicecco said he felt compelled to help out Mr. Corwin during this difficult time for his business. 

“Once we heard of what was going on, and he had limited production, we wanted to make sure we supported him in any way we could,” he said. “The easiest way that I knew how was to purchase his products.” 

Over the last year and a half, Jerry and the Mermaid has been serving Crescent Farm duck breast occasionally on its specials board. He is already in communication with Mr. Corwin about another purchase to offer roast duck to customers soon. 

“We want to see these farms here in the future for generations to come,” Mr. Dicecco said. “We need to make sure we rally around them and support them in any way that we can.”

Although rebuilding was no easy feat, Mr. Corwin said the support of the community is what got Crescent Duck Farm over the finish line. 

“We feel an obligation to Long Island to continue an iconic industry, I feel an obligation to continue farming out here,” the owner said. “I feel strongly enough that if it wasn’t for the community, we wouldn’t be doing this.”