I anticipate the same problem and surrounded my garlic and strawberry beds by laying my tomato cages around them. I only had one deer venture in and that one went in because two cages weren't end to end. For the summer I think I'll put some stakes in and string fishing line around them for a low fence.

I have a feeling that uncovered/disturbed bulbs causing substandard growth later would be more of a problem than death by stomping so it might be too early.

What you can do is simple;
take a hand shovel and patiently start searching for those treasures.
once you find them, handle them carefully with least possible
disturbance and put them aside. once you are done, level the patch,
replant them and water them individually, real goo.

I didn't dig them up and move them, no other place for them at this time of year. But most of the onions are now coming up and the greens look fine. I won't know about the bulbs until I dig some later in the year, but at least I know they haven't all been stomped to death!

Catherine