What’s a good way to dry up mud/water fast

[RJKnott]

So here in north AL we have had a lot of rain so far and to say the duck pen is a muddy mess is an understatement

Drainage is normally good but the retention pond in my yard the pen drains into is also flooded over so water is just backing up into the pen

Normally I wouldn’t mind too much as it will dry on its own as the rain tapers off in the coming weeks…

But one of my ducks had an unexpected duckling. She had gone broody and I took her eggs and left her some that I had been trying to incubate but never developed. Apparently she slid one more of her own in there that I missed and when I went out last night to lay down some fresh straw for them in their coop since the rain made it all muddy, and there was a little duckling wandering around. All the other ducks are cool and the whole flock, even the males have been attending to it. She had a couple more that seem like hers and may be developing as they are kind of heavy. Haven’t been able to candle them yet.

So right outside the door to the coop, into the larger pen, is where a lot of water pools up. I don’t want any newly hatched ducklings getting out to there and drowning in the mud and water.

So anyone have any tips or tricks to quickly dry up standing water and mud when drainage is backed up?

Picture of duckling attached

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Horse stall pellets from a feed store. They are pellets that absorb water and fall apart into pine sawdust.

 

[RJKnott]

Cool. I’m headed out to get some duckling crumble feed in a bit so will see what they have

 

[RJKnott]

I picked up a bag of those pellets and wow they worked great. Ordered a couple more that I will put down tomorrow