Wish I could see a picture. Am not sure what could be causing this. However, one suggestion I'd make, is to not fertilize beans. They rarely need it.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Adding nitrogen or other amendments to beans often produces lots of leaves but little else. But it's odd that they're not going anywhere. A picture might help.

I agree that photo(s) would be helpful.

"They were planted mid June, came up just fine, produced great big first set of leave, and now have a ton of little stubby nubs..."

Is the garden fenced? If the first set of leaves is gone, it sounds like animal damage. Deer would be my first guess, if you have them in your area. Don't know if you have woodchucks out there, they have done damage like that to my garden. Both can do an incredible amount of damage in a very short period of time, even in one night. Rabbits possibly, although they would take longer to cause serious damage.

If you or your neighbors have dog hair from combing (my neighbor's dogs are shedding) spread it around the garden perimeter, it might help.

Are the color of the leaves normal? If so, I'm inclined to think you have a PH issue (either very acidic or very alkaline) or you have overwatering/drainage issues.

Thanks to all who responded. To clarify, beans still have first set of leaves. The color of the leaves is normal but they are small and heavily textured like the houseplant Peperomia. Finally this morning I see some vines looking like they want to go somewhere. Woo Hoo !!!! We'll see what happens. I would not be surprised about the ph. The soil we filled our bed with was supposed to be good stuff, ended up with no, none, zero nitrogen. I will do a test for ph.