Diapause is a pre-programmed arrest of development allowing insects to survive in unfavorable environments. In adult insects, diapause termination is often followed by shifts in macronutrient allocation and a transition to reproduction. Interestingly, in some social insects, narcosis with CO₂ can be used to bypass diapause and induce reproduction, thus making it a useful tool for identifying conditions that trigger a shift to reproduction. Moreover, previous research suggests that CO₂ may improve queen productivity following diapause termination. However, how CO₂ narcosis and diapause act in concert to affect reproduction, and whether the mechanisms underlying the transition to reproduction are shared, remain unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of exposure to both diapause and CO₂ on queen reproduction in the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens). We narcotized queens with CO₂ following diapause-like conditions (cold storage) over a period of 2-weeks, 2-months, 4-months, or no cold storage, and compared their survival, egg-laying latency, and offspring production, with that of non-narcotized queens over the same length of cold storage. We found that CO₂ narcosis positively affected reproduction following no cold storage or a 2-week cold storage, but, did not have this effect following longer periods of cold storage. In line with previous research and regardless of CO₂ narcosis, survival decreased with cold storage length, with approximately 40% of queens surviving following 4-months compared with 80% after 2-months. Our data suggest that independently, CO₂ narcosis and cold storage of at least 2-months trigger the shift to reproduction, but this effect is not additive. Instead, CO₂ narcosis appears to have complex effects on queen survival and reproduction that vary with cold-storage length.