Crescent ducks are back on the menu, for a limited time, anyway.

In recent weeks, ducks reared from the last remaining eggs from Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue have been available for sale at Miloski’s Poultry Farm in Calverton. Crescent lost nearly all its flock to avian flu earlier this year and the farm underwent what could be its final quarantine test Monday. A clean report could lead to some 3,000 ducks, which have been hosted at outside locations for the past two months, returning to the farm.

Miloski’s owner, Mark Miloski, said he’s been helping out his longtime friend, Crescent owner Doug Corwin, by not only hosting about 1,000 ducks in his currently unoccupied turkey barns, but also selling a selection of male ducks that aren’t needed from the flock as Crescent focuses on growing mostly females to restart its operation.

Miloski has been selling roast Crescent duck in his Calverton shop for the past week or so at $32.18 each, and they’ve been selling quickly. He is also planning to sell some of the male ducks to Modern Snack Bar, a mainstay on the North Fork, in the coming weeks.

Miloski noted he and Corwin have known each other for decades, and he never gave a second thought to the idea of helping his friend raise ducks when the setback presented itself.

"We’re such good friends, I wouldn’t want to be in business without him," Miloski said.

Corwin agreed. "If it wasn’t for us pitching together, we probably wouldn’t be in business," through the years.

The ducks hosted at Miloski’s are about 9 weeks old. The females won’t be able to lay eggs until they are 24 to 26 weeks old.

Corwin underwent a government bird flu test of his property Monday, and if all goes as planned, the final quarantine of his farm could be lifted in coming weeks. If that happens, all the remotely raised ducks could be returned to Aquebogue by late May or early June. A separate 10-kilometer quarantine was lifted last month, Newsday reported.

Male ducks on the menu at Miloski’s were culled from the Crescent flock of about 2,800 ducks (Around 1,000 are being raised at Miloski’s and 1,800 in Eastport). Crescent needs chiefly female laying ducks to propagate the flock from the original stock, so about half the males of the original 3,000 ducks were culled. When all is up and running, the farm needs about 8,000 females laying eggs to keep the process running.

Modern Snack Bar, which opens May 14, may be the only Long Island restaurant with Crescent ducks on the menu — as long as they last. 

Corwin said he’s continuing with 17 people on his payroll, including 11 full-time workers, many of whom are helping in fumigation, barn upgrades, maintenance and office work until the operation is back in business sometime next year. 

Workers in Crescent’s processing warehouse probably won’t be hired back until next summer, if all goes as planned. Crescent raises and processes about 1 million ducks a year.

"I’ve got a lot of milestones left," Corwin said of the work ahead of him. "We’re on the cusp of a big milestone — getting our ducks back."

It won’t be exactly same place. Corwin said he plans a long list of new bio-secure measures to keep the farm and its 20 structures even safer from bird flu and other problems. That will include measures to keep wild birds off the property, as wild birds are considered spreaders of the disease.

With Erica Marcus