If it works in your spot, consider wrapping some chicken wire around them, then as they grow, you can wrap a "tube" of chicken wire around the plant to support and help protect the buds. Problem is, you might still get unlucky depending on your wildlife situation. If there are a lot of deer around, you never know. Supposedly mint essential oil deters deer, so you could always try that as a foliar spray-diluted in water of course. Guerrilla growing is fun but there is also a lot of potential heartbreak involved. Where I used to live by biggest threats were gophers and deer, so I did what I could to deter those two kinds of animals. The animal situation might be different where you live though, so you have to adapt to your local threats. Good luck!