‘Just enough for a first generation’: Crescent Duck Farm’s eggs have hatched

Crescent Duck Farm’s eggs have hatched.

The eggs saved for hatching after last month’s outbreak of avian influenza at the Aquebogue farm produced 3,700 ducklings, Crescent Duck Farm President Doug Corwin said this evening. About half of them are females.

Corwin said he was hoping for a better result, but “so long as we can keep them avian flu-free, we will have just enough for a first generation.”

Newborn females will start laying eggs at six months of age. 

Corwin said last week he hoped 5,000 eggs would hatch. Some 15,000 eggs were sanitized and cleared by the state for hatching at an off-site hatchery. Of that number, 6,000 were discarded because they did not have embryos growing inside, a determination made by examining the egg with a light. The hatching of 3,700 eggs of the remaining 9,000 was a very low hatching rate, compared to normal rates, Corwin said. But the eggs were already old and a lower rate was anticipated, he said. 

“As a farmer, I was hoping for better,” Corwin said. 

With highly pathogenic avian influenza sweeping across the country, the potential looms for another avian flu outbreak. If it happens again, Corwin said, “We’re done.”

READ MORE ABOUT CRESCENT DUCK FARM

According to an egg industry newsletter published today by Egg-News.com, “The number of hens depopulated in an attempt to control the outbreak has exceeded 27 million during the first six weeks of 2025. This follows the loss of 24 million hens in 2024, 13 million in 2023 and 43 million during 2022,” which was the beginning of the North American outbreak. 

“The Administration is going to have to do something for the egg industry,” Corwin said. “Three million today is another 1% of that industry.”

Corwin has become a vocal advocate for vaccination against avian influenza, which is not permitted by the USDA. Vaccines exist and have been deployed in Europe, but the broiler industry in the U.S. has resisted vaccination because some countries will not allow vaccinated birds to be imported. 

The growers of egg-laying hens export little, though, Corwin noted. With egg shortages and egg prices soaring, there is pressure on the new administration to take a different approach. Incoming Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is reportedly considering a change in policy.

Whether a change in course helps the relatively tiny duck industry, Corwin said, “is another issue.”

Corwin said last week he expects the quarantine in place at his farm — Long Island’s last surviving duck farm — will remain in place for another 2-3 months.  

“We are truly doing our best to keep our legacy strong,” he said.