Life and Times of Bee Culture Editor Jerry Hayes (S4, E11)

Jerry Hayes’ journey to become the current Editor of Bee Culture magazine makes him uniquely qualified to lead the A.I. Root Company’s 149-year-old Magazine for Beekeepers.

He started as a high school teacher in Georgia, but soon found that was not what he wanted to do, so he left that and began working in the plastic industry. That’s where he met his first beekeeper and started this journey.

He went back to school in Wooster, Ohio, studying commercial beekeeping under the watchful eye of Dr. Jim Tew. From there to the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Baton Rouge studying African Honey Bees. Then the Dadant organization offered him a job in their Michigan branch, but shortly John Root offered him a job as Product Manager for their bee supply business. Dadant countered and brought him to the Hamilton location, where he worked in product development and began his 40 years writing the Q&A Column for ABJ.

From there he became Florida’s Chief Apiary Inspector for a bit, then working with an Israeli company trying to develop a RNAi treatment for Varroa. Monsanto bought that company and Jerry headed in that direction and finally on to Medina, Ohio.

Being Editor gives some insight into the industry he hadn’t had before – what are the biggest changes, what’s not changed, the incredible advancement of educational opportunities for beekeepers everywhere, and the rise of the internet as both a good and bad source of information for beekeepers.

Working with writers is an ongoing job, but his contacts from all of his previous experiences is proving valuable as he knows almost everybody in the worlds of government and university research, the business of beekeeping, and the world of industry regulation. He guides several industry organizations, and works constantly to make his readers more environmentally aware of the world around them.

Listen to the details of the journey Jerry Hayes took to get to the Editor’s chair at Bee Culture magazine.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Bee Culture Magazine: https://www.beeculture.com
• Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/
• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC