How many yellow jackets live in one nest?

How many yellow jackets live in one nest depends on species, time of year, and location, with numbers growing from small queen-started colony in spring to large colony in late summer. In spring, overwintered queen starts new nest and lays few eggs, colony has only queen and few workers, maybe dozen. By early summer, colony grows to few hundred workers. By late summer, peak size, typical yellow jacket nest contains 500 to 5,000 workers, with some large nests reaching up to 15,000 or more in favorable conditions with abundant food and mild winters, particularly German yellow jackets and other invasive species that can build huge nests. Bald-faced hornets, which are actually yellow jackets, have nests with 100 to 400 workers at peak. Underground yellow jacket nests can be larger than aerial nests because they are protected. Nests include queen, workers, males in late summer, and brood of eggs, larvae, and pupae. In fall, new queens and males are produced, then colony dies with frost, leaving only mated queens to overwinter. So typical late summer nest has 1,000 to 4,000 workers, but large nests can have 10,000 plus, which is why disturbing late summer nests is dangerous due to many defenders. Size varies by species and region, southern states with longer season have larger nests.