Pollen-storer. Nests on or just below the surface of the soil (Alford, 1975). Burtt (1923a) describes a nest he located at about 370 metres in north Wales. This was constructed beneath a slab of stone, the nest being surrounded by a light grey-green covering of wax to which seven long, cylindrical honey pots were fixed.The cocoons were cream-coloured, many of the queen and all the worker cells being empty and used as honey pots. Sixty-seven male cocoons covered the tops of the "comb" and a fertile worker was taking the place of the queen, who had perished. Seven young queens and more than one hundred and forty workers were theinmates of this populous colony. In the same locality, Burtt also observed males flying in procession from rock to rock, this perhaps being a mating strategy. In the Peak District, Yalden (1982) found one nest in a rabbit hole and another in a natural cavity beneath aboulder. Of the seven nests she excavated between June and August, the number of cocoons varied between four and three hundred and twenty-three. A queen alongside her honeypot is illustrated by E. von Hagens (1986).
A number of nests have been recorded in Norway, all of which were situated on, or just below the surface of the ground, usually in vacated rodent nests (Løken, 1973). The colonies are rather small with the number of workers produced being usually about 24 (Reinig, 1965).