The young queens are born at the end of the year and mate with drones before hibernating through winter. Their massive thorax muscles create heat when they fly which means they can forage for nectar when other insects feel the cold. Bumblebees also have hairy bodies to help keep them warm in cold seasons or countries with cooler climates. Bumblebee queens produce wax to build cells in their burrows. They lay their eggs in these cells.
Bumblebees have small wings in comparison to their body.
But they have very strong muscles in their body that enable them to fly. Bumblebees look for food as far away as 2km from the burrow, but usually it is between 500 and 700m. Bumblebees have special back legs to help them collect pollen from the flowers. They have hairs on these legs that form ' pollen baskets '. Bumblebees are able to scrape pollen from their bodies into these baskets using 'combs' on their front legs and so return to the burrow laden with pollen.