ideas for protecting amendments and mulch around perennials from chickens

Chickens are great.  We free range ours across our large property.

But I also love my fruit and nut trees and bushes and want them to thrive and grow bigger, so that means applying minerals/compost/mulch/etc in the spring and fall.  That type of thing is a magnet for chickens and they will destroy it forthwith.  UGH!

I have been struggling to find good solutions to this for years.  Would love to hear what worked for you!

I have tried repurposing small pieces of fence and making a small circle around the base.  Sort of works but I have a lot of things to mulch.  Maybe you have a more elegant application of this to share?

I have also used the "lots of little sticks stuck into the ground method" which is effective because they don't have room to get in and scratch, but it means everytime I want to reamend/mulch I have to remove all those little sticks and start over.  You need a lot of little sticks close together for it to work.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I didn't see anything when I did a few search...

I feel like chickens know where you don't want them to be so they ESPECIALLY go to those spots.

If the fruit tree/shrub is small, I will utilize the fencing trick to protect the plant from getting unearthed. Once they have established, I just accept the chickens have found their new favorite dust bath and will top it off, time to time, with more compost/soil.

I know, not a great solution but I'll be curious if anybody has a better way!

This is an age old problem, so don't feel bad. In my opinion is comes down to one of two solutions. Either you fence in the chickens or you fence in the stuff you don't want the chickens to get into.

My preference is to use a mobile electric net so that I can move my chickens around and they get the benefit of new ground. But it lets me decide when I want chickens in certain areas. I like running chickens under fruit trees at certain times to eat grubs. Other times I want them to leave it alone. By using the electric net I can decide when and where I want my chickens. I know other people who simply fence out the areas they do not want the chickens going into and that works for them. I have too many predators to be able to free range chickens around here.