Squirrels ate my fava bean, and snow pea, seeds right away

Squirrels have always been a big problem where I live.
I have read that fava beans were good for soil, and could be planted in cooler weather.
I bought some seeds, planted them, and the squirrels dug them up and ate them right away.
I suppose I could sprout them indoors. But then, I am afraid the squirrels would eat them as soon they grew.
Similar story with snow peas.

I've heard some people have luck planting the seeds, or covering them up, with hot pepper spice.

I have similar problems with squirrels, mice, voles, rats, jays, crows, robins, etc.

But since I love peas and favas , I start mine inside in trays under lights, then transplant them once they get 6-8 inches tall. The peas and favas are transplanted into 40 gallon cloth pots and covered at first with row covers or netting. This  year I also transplanted some big seeded favas into a raised bed and clipped off the cotyledons before transplanting. This plan works fairly well, but it's a lot of work!

I wonder what would happen if you planted your peas and favas two inches deep, and then really stomped the soil down around them?

We have one advantage. The Grey squirrel is an introduced species, so there's no bag limit. I have a friend who hunts them ( he's a wild bird fanatic and squirrels are very hard on the nesting birds) and either skins and eats them, or feeds them to the local owls. A couple of years ago, he had an owl visit regularly that was raising 3 owlets. She'd call to him as if to say, "Come on, my babies are hungry, help out will you?"

I don't know what eats mine, but a layer of chicken wire over the soil until the first two true leaves form seems to stop them.

Chicken wire is probably the most reliable thing honestly. I had the same problem with peas, they'd vanish overnight. Started them in modules indoors and planted out once they had a few inches of growth, squirrels lost interest after that. Still had to cover the bed for the first week or so though.

So I had the same problem in Aug. and Sept. trying to plant things for autumn harvest, A squirrel ate almost every seed I planted, including radish seeds.  So this year I got some mesh and put it over some of my seeds, but its really a lot of extra work because the type I got wasn't the best, I just got what they had.  I think though that the squirrel in question may have found a new yard to haunt ... I mean live in.

I've heard that squirrels will stay away if people put out realistic squirrel sculptures and move them every couple of days, I think that may be a good idea, I'm thinking about doing it myself, as the mesh is a pain.  Has anyone tried the sculpture method, does it work?

I don't have a squirrel problem, it's mice and rats;  I seem to be able to deter them by laying down insect mesh over the bed, preferrably burying all the edges so they can't get under it (but sometimes I just lay down old planks of wood and that seems to work too).  I take the mesh off when the seedlings are a couple inches high.  They even dug out my newly transplanted corn seedlings one year, to eat the little bit of corn left at the root ball!  I put the mesh down as a precaution over new transplants now, too.

Thanks for all the replies.

As it turned out, the squirrels did not eat all the fava beans I planted. I planted about 25, and now have ten plants.
I think I planted 10 to 15 snow peas, and now have 3 or 4 growing plants.

I planted more peas, and I am trying this:
I heard that squirrels cannot resist bare soil. They have to dig into it, even if they are burying or digging up food.
We have this sage bush that grows like mad here in Colorado. I think it's called Egyptian sage. We trimmed that down to nothing. Kept the branches, and dried them out. I broke up the branches into about 6" pieces and covered the new area with those pieces. Sun can still get though, and sprouts also have some room.
So far, I am not seeing a lot of holes. Maybe this will do it.
I thought about taking the pieces, and poking them into the soil, so it would poke anybody who tried to walk on it. But have not done that - yet.

I have also heard that squirrels will dig up onions, and garlic, even though squirrels hate onions and garlic.
Squirrels have dug up many of my seed potatoes, but the squirrels don't eat them.

I put dead grass on my newly planted sunflower and pumpkin seeds to see if that helps this year, so far so good, similar idea to yours.

years ago I had an AG extension agent, tell me its a good idea to plant 2 to 3x more than what you want to grow to account for wildlife pressure. well im beginning to think I need to plant 10x in order to get anything here at the edge of the smokies with all the wildlife that is here. I'm experimenting this year. I just planted 2 plots in garden about 10'x10' one with turnip seed and one with beet seed. thrown on ground like grass seed and then raked in. my bean, corn squash rows I put 4 or 5 of each seed about 18-24" apart. I can see already that something pulled up some of the beans that just sprouted. and in my other garden space a wild turkey thought she would check out the area within a hour of planting. fortunately all the sugar snaps and spinach that have sprouted have not been touched----yet.

This year I am experimenting with starting all plants whose seeds normally attract  mice, birds,etc indoors.  We will see how that works.

John F Dean wrote:This year I am experimenting with starting all plants whose seeds normally attract  mice, birds,etc indoors.  We will see how that works.

I have foxes, cats, bobcats, owls, hawks, and still too many squirrels eating the flowers off the geraniums, new growth, digging under retaining walls, messing up planting beds,  holes everywhere, I’m ready to import a crocodile

I used to know a guy who had a live trap that he trapped the squirrels and carried them off to the country.

Squirrels are not a problem where I live as they are few and we enjoy their antics.