bumblebee, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bumblebee adj.

[the crop has become so low that the saying has it that the bees can lie on their backs sucking the juice from the flowers or plants]

(US) of a crop that has become dried up and stunted.

1946

N&Q Oct. 104/1: Bumblebee Cotton: cotton so stunted by drought that bumblebees can sit on the ground and suck nectar from the blossoms [DA].