We have drought in New Jersey (USA) this summer and have been put on Water Restrictions. It only applies to those who use the city water, mine is New Jersey American Water, with a few exceptions. For me, both for our home and drinking we have the city water, however, we also have a well pump that I use for irrigation of my flowers and daffodil beds. When we bought the house we were told that the lady of the house before us was a city girl that didn’t like well pump water and forced her husband to connect to the city water that was at the street in front of the house. Good for us now that we have a drought.
The good thing about drought is that daffodils like to be dry in the summer. Drought will give them the dry.. The bad thing about drought is that there is a need to protect the bulbs from the heat of the sun. I use 3 to 4 inches of chips on top of my beds. In the past I have also used Straw 3 to 4 inches on top of the bed. Yes this is the same straw that is sold for horse barns as it has less seed than traditional hay, which can work as well. Others let weeds and grass grow on the beds (green mulch) for the summer. I have also used pine straw to provide shade for by beds, however, in New Jersey there seems to be little pine straw around.
The good part of it is that the chips and the straw will breakdown and eventually disappear. The pine straw you may want to remove before digging your daffodils the following year(s). Pine straw can be reused, so save it. The bad part about using straw is that the following spring and summer you may be subject to a lot of green grown from the seed in the straw. The green grown in a nuisance however, it can be easily overcome.
Good luck with it.
Clay