 In the early spring , the queen comes out of diapause and finds a suitable place to create her colony . Then she builds wax cells in which to lay her eggs which were fertilised the previous year . The eggs that hatch develop into female workers , and in time , the queen populates the colony , with workers feeding the young and performing other duties similar to honeybee workers . In temperate zones , young queens ( gynes ) leave the nest in the autumn and mate , often more than once , with males ( drones ) that are forcibly driven out of the colony . The drones and workers die as the weather turns colder ; the young queens feed intensively to build up stores of fat for the winter . They survive in a resting state ( diapause ) , generally below ground , until the weather warms up in the spring with the early bumblebee being the species that is among the first to emerge . Many species of bumblebee follow this general trend within the year . Bombus <unk> is a species that follows this type of colony cycle . For this species the cycle begins in February , reproduction starts in July or August , and ends in the winter months . The queen remains in hibernation until spring of the following year in order to optimize conditions to search for a nest . 
