“What is the best way to plant bean seeds?”
I’m going to make an educated guess. You may be planting your beans too early. The soil needs to be WARM for bean seeds to germinate properly; at least 60 degrees. Also, they DO have hard shells so keeping them moist once they are in the ground is key. If you’re not getting 1 inch of rain each week, you HAVE to water them. You’ve just gotta! ;)
Also, my cure for everything - MULCH! It helps retain both heat and moisture and tamps down the weeds. Beans do NOT like to compete with weeds. Well, who does? LOL!
A Soil Thermometer is your friend. They are not expensive and are usually pretty accurate.
Here’s a handy-dandy chart for soil temperatures for seeding vegetables:
https://www.homefortheharvest.com/soil-temperature-for-planting-vegetables-chart/
Meant to add: The nice thing about bush beans is that once the soil warms up you can seed them every couple of weeks and you will have fresh beans all season. (I LOVE green beans; had some with supper tonight, actually.)
I’ve also done that with pole green beans, especially if I’ve had some ‘Chipmunk thievery.’ I’ve found that I’m able to extend the pole bean harvest that way, too.
(Never tried it with drying beans, but I kind of want them ALL to come in and the pods to dry at the same time late in the season so I can shuck them all at the same time.)