Pollen-storer. Nests are established both beneath and on the surface of the ground. Females occasionally invade disused bird nests, especially those in nest-boxes placed well above the ground. The wax is dark brown.Colonies tend to be rather small, Meidl (in Løken, 1973) estimated the maximum numbers of workers produced in some Norwegian nests as about forty. However, others may be large, containing two hundred workers (Prys-Jones & Corbet, 1987). An occupied nest is illustrated by Free & Butler (1959).
Rasmont (2008) reports that this species will utilise abandoned mammal nests and, occasionally, occupy abandoned bird's nests.