Thinning beans

[Brisen]

I'm a newbie gardener; I planted a garden with a square foot layout. I have bush beans growing. Something has found them tasty and chewed off the tops once or twice. Each time it happend, I was close to thinning, but I put it off because I didn't want to leave only a few plants and then have them all eaten. So the plants have been left alone for a couple of weeks now, and I realized when I was weeding that some of them are quite close together. There should be four plants in each square foot, but some have 5-7, and usually they are quite close together.

I'm just starting to see blossoms beginning to open, so of course again I'm hesitant to thin. I'm also worried that pulling up a plant that's right next to the one I'm leaving will damage the roots. Should I just leave them and hope they don't mind being crowded? Should I thin by cutting the extras off at the ground instead of pulling them up?

[CarrieMF]

There is no need to thin them. Let them grow as is.

[Lisoula]

Actually, you can have 9 bush beans in one square foot, so you're fine!

[Brisen]

Sounds good; I'll just leave them be.