Russell is an enthusiastic beekeeper who also plays the trumpet and piano. Someday he would like to become an astronaut "to study the Earth from a different perspective." His favorite activity is running the flight simulators at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center.
As a beekeeper, Russell found it difficult to keep his honeybees alive. One hive died of pesticide poisoning, another from a wasp attack, and others from disease. Russell learned about so-called solitary bees that seem to avoid parasites and disease by living alone, but information on their lifestyle was lacking. A beekeeper mentioned that solitary bees like to nest in small holes in wood, so Russell set out to ascertain the optimal size of such holes and whether the solitary bees preferred light or dark wood.
Russell drilled 300 holes of two distinct diameters and three depths into 15 blocks of wood. He used a blowtorch to darken some parts of the wood blocks and set them all outside in an area where he had seen solitary bees. He noted that nesting bees stuff cut-up pieces of leaves into a hole. Russell monitored this activity in the holes until the first frost arrived 10 weeks later. He found that the bees liked holes as deep as 6 inches and avoided those only 2 inches deep. Also, the bees preferred narrow-diameter holes and kept out of wider ones. The color of the wood didn't matter.
