A colony of yellow jackets is made up of workers and the queen. The queen stays in the nest and lays eggs. The worker's job is to protect the queen, build the nest, and retrieve food for the queen and larvae. Nests grow over time to around the size of a soccer ball and can house 4,000 to 5,000 yellow jackets. Nests are usually lived in for one season as the colony dies off in the winter.