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 ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup.   Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies.   Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout.  _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! 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 Thank you for listening!  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