I do care if water dumps on the ground. We are having severe water shortages in my area in Italy. Water dumped on the ground in the chicken pen serves no purpose. I collect the warm “dirty” water daily when I give the girls fresh cool water. The collected water goes on the garden. The garden also gets water from the kitchen from rinsing vegetables and washing up. The garden gets no water from my well or our neighborhood spring which is dangerously low.
Understand. I lived in Naples, Italy for 2 years back in the 1990's. Water was precious, and not always available out of the faucet. We had to buy bottled water for everything short of the bathroom needs. And I remember days when there was no water at all out of the faucet. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I still remember those days.
That is probably why I now live on a lake, have my own well water, and never have to worry about a water shortage again in my lifetime. Perhaps I should think of others who have to ration their water. It's hard for me to think about flushing out a tiny chicken drinking cup matters when I can run my lawn and garden sprinklers all day long and never worry about anything. I did not mean to offend. And I truly understand how valuable water is when you have to conserve every tiny bit you can.
I know some of our southern states have a terrible drought going on and their water supply is at record low levels never seen before. It might be great to see a thread on ways to reduce water use, in general, and more specifically with their backyard flock. Your examples of using collected water from cleaning out the chicken waterers, and from washing food in the kitchen, are some great examples of how to make a good second use of water and not waste it by putting it down the drain.
