FRUIT crops across the country are well down this year because of the poor flying conditions ... for bees.

The rain and generally colder weather has kept bumble bees grounded and honey bees holed up in their hives.

Examiner reader Sharon Higginbotham took this photograph of a bee busy in her Golcar garden – but it’s been a rare sight this soggy summer.

Huddersfield gardening expert Graham Porter said that bumble bees have more fur, are rounder and are known as random pollinators which fly around at will.

But the honey bees, which are longer, narrower and so more aerodynamic, tend to stay in the area near to the hive and once they spot a good crop get the message back to the hive and so the bees focus on that crop until it is finished.

Graham said: “The wet weather has meant that the bumble bees in particular can’t fly. The bees are there but the rain is stopping them from doing their job.

“I was at a meeting in London this week where it was revealed that fruit crops across the country are going to be lower than normal because of the weather and the impact is has had on bees. There has been poor pollination of fruit trees this year.”

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