Confirmation Bias: How Beekeeping Echo Chamber, Jerry Hayes

It’s a proven fact: we all prefer news sources that confirm our pre-existing opinions. Drawing from his decades of experience, Jerry Hayes talks about the pitfalls of this bias for beekeepers and bees.

Since the beginning of time, or thereabouts, Jerry has immersed himself in the world of bees. Once he heard about this cool hobby called beekeeping’, he couldn’t get enough. So much so, he decided to leave his job, take his wife and young child, and make the logical decision to go back to school. He received his MS degree under the direction of Dr. Jim Tew and hasn’t looked back. He worked for a while for USDA identifying Africanized honey bees but made his career move into the bee world when he took a job as a branch manager for Dadant. His job eventually morphed into more product development and testing, which he enjoyed. While at Dadants, he started the Q&A column in American Bee Journal called “The Classroom.” Jerry answered beekeeper’s questions for 35 years, just retiring from the assignment in 2019.

Missing the South, he shifted careers and became Chief Apiary Inspector for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. During those years, he was introduced to RNAi, which was an emerging new technology offering hope for controlling varroa. After nine years with the Florida Department of Ag. Monsanto came a-calling and offered Jerry a position which he accepted. He took the job because he genuinely believed he could tear down barriers between the beekeeping industry and Monsanto and help the bees. With the weight of Monsanto backing RNAi, there was a chance it could become a reality. Unfortunately, delivering RNA proved intractably difficult, and the project was abandoned. That’s when he decided to move on and went to work for Vita Bee Health until a completely different offer came his way.

Kim Flottum, a previous editor of Bee Culture magazine, had approached Jerry a few years ago about taking over editor. He considered the position but figured there were way too many folks more qualified that would want the job. But when it came down to it, he was the one most qualified. Jerry has been at the helm as the editor for over a year, and so far, is loving his job.