The common perception of a bee colony often involves a massive, permanent structure housing thousands of individuals, defined by the familiar honeybee hive. Bumblebees, however, operate on a fundamentally different biological timeline and architectural plan. These robust pollinators do not establish perennial hives. Instead, they form smaller, temporary colonies that are re-established annually by a single queen.
Bumblebee Nests Are Not Hives
The most significant difference between the two insects lies in the scale and permanence of their homes. A strong honeybee colony can swell to contain 50,000 individuals, while a mature bumblebee nest rarely exceeds a few hundred workers. This small population size means the bumblebee nest does not require the complex architecture of the honeybee’s wax honeycomb.
Bumblebees produce wax, but they use it to construct temporary, thimble-sized wax pots for storing nectar and pollen, and simple brood cells for raising young. These structures are often built haphazardly, giving the interior of a nest a disorganized appearance compared to the honeybee’s precise, hexagonal comb. Since the colony’s existence is short-lived, the bees focus on immediate needs and do not engage in the intensive process of dehydrating nectar into long-term honey stores.
Where Bumblebees Choose to Nest
The annual nature of the colony leads bumblebees to be opportunistic when selecting a nesting site, prioritizing insulation and existing cavity space over structural construction. A newly emerged queen seeks out a pre-made, sheltered space rather than expending energy to excavate or build a large home from scratch. Approximately 70% of nests are found underground, often utilizing abandoned rodent burrows which offer immediate protection and a ready-made tunnel entrance.
Common nesting locations include dense grass tussocks, cavities beneath sheds or decking, and piles of compost or leaf litter. The queen then uses soft, insulating materials like moss, dry grass, or animal fur to line the cavity and protect her initial brood. This reliance on existing cavities and soft lining materials is characteristic of a species that must found a new home rapidly each spring.
The Ephemeral Life of a Bumblebee Colony
The entire life cycle of a bumblebee colony is compressed into a single warm season, separating them from their perennial honeybee cousins. The cycle begins in early spring when a newly emerged queen, who mated the previous autumn and survived winter in solitary hibernation, forages to build up her strength. She then finds a suitable nesting site and begins laying eggs and raising the first generation of workers alone.
The queen creates a small wax chamber, lays her first batch of eggs, and then incubates them, sometimes vibrating her flight muscles to generate heat for the developing brood. Once the first generation of workers emerges, they immediately take over the tasks of foraging and nest maintenance. This transition allows the founding queen to retire from outside duties and focus solely on maximizing egg production throughout the summer.
As the colony reaches its peak strength in late summer or early autumn, the queen lays eggs that develop into males and new queens. These new reproductives leave the nest to mate, and the fertilized new queens feed heavily to build up the fat reserves necessary for hibernation. As temperatures drop, the entire original colony—including the old founding queen, the workers, and the males—perishes, leaving only the newly mated queens to burrow into the soil to await the next spring.