Crescent Duck Farm reopens in Aquebogue with new generation of birds after 19-month shutdown due to avian flu

On a late summer morning, Crescent Duck Farm owner Doug Corwin, 67, opened a temperature-controlled hatchery that resembled a high-tech refrigerator, allowing the peeps of dozens of hatchlings still in their shells to fill the room.

As he picked up one egg, he pointed to a small, pink beak that had just broken through the shell, and should fully hatch by the end of the week.

After 19 months during which the government ordered the culling of nearly his entire flock of 99,000 following a bird flu outbreak, the egg symbolized the next generation of ducks. Corwin hopes it will keep Crescent, the last major commercial duck farm on Long Island, in business for years to come.

"I don't want the last Long Island ducks on this island to be big baseball players," Corwin said, referring to the local baseball team.

Corwin said business operations restarted about two weeks ago, with production at about 70% compared with before the flu breakout.

"You always have your little problems day in, day out," he said. "But everything's been working relatively smoothly."

While all birds were culled, Corwin used 15,000 stored eggs to keep almost 120 years of breeding alive. The eggs were cleaned in high strength chlorine by workers who had been segregated from the affected birds and incubated in several locations including turkey farms 10 miles away from the Crescent farm.

Only about one-third of those eggs hatched, but it was enough to create the first generation of ducks since the outbreak. The farm waited four months until a quarantine ended to bring those ducks back to the Aquebogue property.

Originated in 1908 by his great-grandfather, Corwin said the farm has worked hard to breed ducks with a unique profile. Corwin said he personally oversees the final pick of breeding ducks by observing traits like their neck strength and chest.

Without their unique meat profile, they would be out of business, he said.

"Everyone's genetics are so different that you don't have anyone that really has a meat profile like ours that plumps up and stays as tender as it does, which is why we we're still here," Corwin said.

As of Wednesday, the farm had collected about 2,400 eggs, which are inspected and placed in a cool, temperature-controlled room. The eggs were placed into incubators twice a week, where they will spend about four weeks in 99-degree conditions.

In about two weeks, Corwin said he hopes to reach pre-outbreak numbers of about 3,700 eggs collected. In the last week of incubation, the eggs are brought to hatchling rooms at a slightly cooler temperature, where they will hatch.

About 9,000 ducklings with yellow down feathers, all only about five days old, waddled inside one barn on Wednesday. It was one of five barns used to house the young poultry until they are chosen for breeding or get sold for markets.

In one of the two existing breeding barns, the second-generation of ducks post-outbreak, about 2,100 male and female white adult ducks, walked or lay down on loose straw. 

The ducks produce about 1,100 eggs a day.

Corwin said many precautions have been taken on the 140-acre property to ensure there are no future outbreaks.

Walls and posts in both hatchling and breeding barns were replaced, re-insulated and renovated, and new roofing was installed. The farm has about 25 barns.

Workers also cleared vegetation and existing trees near duck barns to prevent any wild fowl from possibly interacting with the barns. The farm also invested in a boom mower to maintain the property on a more regular basis.

Newsday previously reported Corwin was forced to lay off 48 workers but kept 20 to help with the cleanup. He described the day of layoffs as one of the "saddest things in my life" other than the deaths of his parents.

But as of Wednesday, Corwin said he has rehired most of his full-time staff, or about 37 workers, as well as two new ones.

“[We] persevered, we're here," he said. "Hopefully we're here to stay."