Souther peas are like green beans.the Book how to breed vegtable crops by Bassett shows you how breed green beans.You picked a hard crop to breed but it is possible.

You could check "Breeding your own vegetables" by Carol Deppe . they have diagrams . Best wishes.

Maybe I could plant the peas I want to cross together and screen in a few big-footed bumble bees to do the work : )
I had some very interesting crosses this year and would like to keep some of them ,as is.
Thanks bunches for the book suggestion.

Southern Peas are 99% self-pollinating before they open so you won't get what you are looking for with bees in a screen cage. They are easy to hand pollinate. I have a bunch in my greenhouse now just a few days away from harvesting the pods.

In a greenhouse or a garden, you have to emasculate the flower a day before it opens. Then the next morning take pollen from a freshly opened flower and pollinate the emasculated flower. In a garden, you will need to cover the stigma with a straw or tape the flower closed to prevent unwanted pollen being transferred. In two days you will know if the cross took as the pod starts to grow.

Contact me if you have any questions. Here's a great link detailing the pollination technique. I recommend a headband magnifer from Ebay to help see what you are doing when it comes to snipping off the anther sacs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollinating Cowpeas

Thank you so much for this information.
I grew out one of my pea seed in a pot to get familiar with the growth habit. I also took a bloom apart. Fascinating!
I was just kidding about the bees, although some research suggested that bumble bees could be responsible for cowpea cross-pollenation.