I'd hire a bulb-sniffing dog.

Maybe just wait until next year and do it when the foliage is still showing? Is there evidence that the bulbs actually need dividing (lack of flowers) or is it something you think you ought to be doing? As for amendments regular mulching with compost is always helpful. Sounds as if the bed could do with being dug over before replanting too.

Mother-in-Law requested the entire bed be rototilled, since "the damned things have been dying out and looking crappy for years". (read: Not so many flowers)

Under the premise of "struggling" to remove the brick edging, I pulled a half dozen tools from the barn and surreptitiously tried my luck at finding some bulbs.

...once I found some, which appeared perfectly healthy but very very overcrowded, I may have fabricated a little white lie about the rototiller not working, so as to justify my turning the bed by hand....

(FYI, answering my original question, a pitchfork seems to cause the least damage, but hand rake or even just hands was even better. Two set of eyes really helped too.)

Six hours later, and only a 4x4' section is turned. Not because the soil was tough (compact, but sandy) but because it was literally a MAT of bulbs!

Only 20% of the bed dug, and I now have TWO five gallon pails of daffodil bulbs....

I knew I had a photo of the garden bed this spring! (who would have thought of looking in the "daffodils" album??)

Plant Identification - I've inherited a 5b/6a jungle... · More Info

Lots of foliage, a few flowers, more at the far end of the bed (drier, sunnier down there)

I don't think the issue is over crowding (see my comments above). I think it's cultural, perhaps not enough sun.

This is quite sparse in my opinion...certainly not 'crowded' as shown.

So maybe you should consider moving them into a total full sun area (which is what they need).

One 4x4' section filled two five gallon pails with clumps just like this.

Just wrench them apart with your hands and replant asap. Don't worry about breaking a few roots. They will already be putting out roots for the new season,

Awesome, thanks floral_uk. They do all have very happy healthy roots, so are with damp crumpled newspaper until I get them back in the ground.... Once I find enough ground to put them in!

Six inches apart, eight inches down sound about right for 1" diameter? Does similar apply to smaller bulbs... 3x diameter=radius for spacing, and depth=3x height?