Crescent Duck Farm Restarts Nearly Two Years After Bird Flu Outbreak

Crescent Duck Farm, the sole surviving commercial duck operation on Long Island, has resumed full production at its Aquebogue facility after a 19-month shutdown triggered by an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak.

Owner Doug Corwin, a fourth-generation farmer, began the restart a little over two weeks ago after clearing a lengthy sequence of requirements: a quarantine period, a thorough disinfection of the property, multiple rounds of testing and compliance with all federal USDA protocols. During the closure, Corwin simultaneously worked off-site to salvage and hatch a new generation of ducklings to rebuild his flock.

The outbreak that forced the farm down hit in January 2025, wiping out the birds Corwin had raised and leaving him to navigate one of the most demanding recovery processes in the state's agricultural sector.

"Now, I'm going to make money again," Corwin told a reporter last week.

Creating a new flock while the main farm sat under quarantine required Corwin to manage two parallel operations — the disinfection and regulatory process on the Aquebogue property, and the separate effort to hatch replacement birds at another location. The whole effort stretched across a year and a half before federal and state authorities cleared the farm to operate.

Crescent Duck Farm has long occupied a singular place in Long Island agriculture. Once part of a broader regional industry that helped give the East End a national reputation for duck production, it now stands as the last of its kind on the Island.

The farm's return comes as H5N1 continues to circulate in poultry flocks nationally, making biosecurity a persistent concern for operators. Corwin's path through the outbreak — quarantine, disinfection, testing, federal sign-off — represents the full gauntlet any commercial producer faces after a confirmed case.