I have friends locally that do just about that same thing every year with their grapes. They put up a "tunnel" made of 2x4 inch welded wire that completely covers their arbors. Of course, they are only about 15 or 20 feet long, but they completley enclose them or the deer will wipe them out.Just a thought what if you tried to plant them on the inside of something like an exclusion cage like we use for apple trees? The deer would be able to browse all they wanted but not get enough to kill the plant. I realize this may not do anything for fall/winter food supply but i would think it could be a great summer forage. Vertical foodplots! You could then remove the cage come your early season and have a great draw - as long as the plant is still green. You could do this with anything that has a vine type growth pattern. Something to think about......
Then if that is the case, being the seeds seem rather expensive, the next thing I would check into is if I could save the ones I picked early and dry them to be planted the following season. I'm guessing maybe to be viable they would have to fully mature on the vine, in that case one could keep a smaller area protected to maturity just to harvest the seeds? I would bet one could collect enough seeds to replant the following season in a fairly small area, and then you could turn the deer loose in the rest of them if you wanted.As long as you keep picking your pole beans every couple of days the plant will keep producing.
Your not going to get this growth on an acre plot with any population. I've planted snap bean seed rejected from a veggie farmer. It's deer candyI really am thinking about experimenting with this. Just look at the height and pods here.
Blue Lake is one of the most common varieties that you find in the canned goods aisle. Green Giant, Del Monte, Libby's all use this type of bean. Looks like they even explain seed collection in the link. One time purchase maybe, just protect enough to get your seeds for the next season? Says a 100' row takes 1lb of seed, but yields 24lbs of beans. I would think protecting 1 row to maturity might give you enough seed for the following year.Putting off my work and researching this idea. Shawn this idea of yours may fit real nice into something I wanted to try. Searching seed sources now..
Possible source
http://mvseeds.com/store/products.php?product=Bean,-Pole-%2d-Blue-Lake-Pole-FM1K