John Alan Root, age 90 of Sarasota, Florida, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on April 26, 2023, after a 23-year journey with Parkinson’s Disease. He was born on February 17, 1933 in Akron, Ohio to the late Alan and Emilie (Myers) Root.
John was a 1950 graduate of Medina Senior High School, after which he attended Ohio Wesleyan University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, John moved to Texas where he served his country as a pilot in the United States Air Force, achieving the rank of Captain. In 1957, he completed his military service and moved back to Medina, Ohio with his young family. He became the fourth generation of the family business, The A.I. Root Company. John spent the last twenty years of his career at the Root Company serving as President & Chairman of the Board, officially retiring in 2008.
John was a true servant to his community. Most notably he cherished his time serving on the Medina City Council (1962-1976), the Medina General Hospital Board of Directors (1971-2008), the Board of Directors for Ohio Farmer’s Insurance & Westfield Group (1986-2004), the National Candle Association Board of Directors (1989-2010), and the Medina Municipal Airport Advisory Commission (1989-2004).
During his time at the The A.I. Root Company, John was the Executive Publisher of Bee Culture Magazine. He was President of the Honey Industry Council of America from 1962-1963 and 1976-1977, President of the Ohio Agricultural Council from 1973-1974, President and Chairman of the Board for the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America, Inc. in 1978 and Chairman of the Board from 1983-1984, as well as Key Advisory Commission of the Agricultural Technical Institute for nine years (1984-1993). There are numerous other organizations that John has served in over the years.
Early in his life, John garnered a deep love for aviation. This passion persisted through his entire life as a private pilot. During his “free time” John could be found at Medina Municipal Airport piloting his airplanes. A loving and kind man, John will be deeply missed by his family and friends.
John is survived by his beloved wife of 30 years, Elisabeth (Grotte) Root; children, Alan (Esther Morera) Root, Nanette (Harold) Waite, Brad (Kathryn) Root; grandchildren Meredith (David) Gilpin, Christopher (Ashley) Waite, Crystal (Jeremy) Doyle, Alex (Abby Araujo) Root, Kyle (Morgan Moritz) Root, Andrew Root, Emilie Root; great-grandchildren, Claire, Abigail, Evan, Samuel, Hank, Josiah, Owen, Oliver, Elijah, Amelia; siblings, Elizabeth Judkins, Stuart (Diana) Root. He was preceded in death by his parents, Alan and Emilie Root.
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It is with great sadness that we share with you that John Root passed at home on April 26, 2023.
After three years in the United States Air Force, he worked 65-plus years for The A. I. Root Company from Advertising Manager to General Manager, to Vice President, to President, to Chairman of the Board, and as a valued member of the Board of Directors. He was also the Executive Publisher of Bee Culture Magazine for many successful years during his time in The A. I. Root Company.
John was on Medina City Council for 14 years with the last 10 years as President and 37 years on Medina General Hospital with 10 years as Chairman.
John was President of the Honey Industry Council of America from 1962-1963 and 1976-1977, President of the Ohio Agricultural Council from 1973-1974, President and Chairman of the Board for the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America, Inc. in 1978 and Chairman of the Board from 1983-1984, as well as Key Advisory Commission of the Agricultural Technical Institute for nine years (1984-1993). There are numerous other organizations that John served in over the years.
]]>By: Emma Wadel
As I hope many of you are aware, we had our annual October event entitled BEEing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping on September 30 and October 1, 2022. I am happy to report that it went fantastic!
Over the past three years, Bee Culture had been trying their best to host this event. Unfortunately both in 2020 and 2021, it was canceled due to the public safety concerns from the still on-going, COVID-19 pandemic. They chose to completely cancel rather than move it to a completely virtual event because they didn’t want to lose out on the spirit of having the event in-person, especially with the speakers we did. I am thankful they chose to postpone!
For anyone who does not know, I am the designer for Bee Culture Magazine. I started here in September 2021, just as they canceled the event that year. I got to spend the remainder of the year learning everything I could from Kathy and for some reason that didn’t include almost anything about the event. I got a couple small notes here and there for it, but since we weren’t planning it, it wasn’t at the forefront of the teaching. Learning the magazine was much more important. But that’s okay since Kim and Kathy are close by and always ready to help!
That being said, from behind the scenes it was wild, chaotic, crazy, basically any synonym you want to apply during the planning and lead up to the event. Since Bee Culture’s entire team is new as of November 2019, none of us have ever planned this event before. Two of us hadn’t even attended one! Luckily, back in early June, Kim came in and gave us a rundown of what we need, when we need it and a best course of action to get going. From there we enlisted the help of some people around the A.I. Root Company (if you didn’t know – that’s the company Bee Culture is owned by!). We needed help with getting our conference room booked, making sure we could actually get in the room, set-up of tables and chairs and a million other tiny details but most importantly, making sure we had food for everyone! A sincere thank you to all of the Root employees who were involved in helping us with this event. We could not have done it without you!
As we planned and time flew by, so many little details kept coming into play that none of us had even thought about! I can’t tell you how many pages of notes I filled up as we had meeting after meeting about the event. An event of our size (we had about 75 people in person) isn’t the biggest event, especially in the bee world, but for three people with minimal experience, it was tough! Planning 14 speakers, in-person and virtual tickets, catering, social media, many Amazon purchases for everything from hand sanitizer to table cloths and everything in-between was difficult to juggle while also putting out a monthly magazine, a daily email blast, some renewal mailings, posting articles online, plus everything Jerry and Jen do. I even went on a week vacation in there!
But overall, we somehow did it and we have received only positive comments. So many people were glad to finally be able to meet in person and have that many speakers with such a wide range of knowledge and expertise to share stories with and ask questions. We are so glad we finally made this happen and it was a great success. We want to do it again in the future, but check back in a few months to see if it’s a yearly event… we’re still tired.
Before I go, I wanted to announce that we will have the recordings of each talk available for purchase on our store website (www.Store.BeeCulture.com). I am writing this on November 7, and so far I have five recordings done out of 15 total recordings. Unfortunately, based on our previous knowledge of technology and programs, software limitations and various other reasons, I am the only one who can work on these. While I do that, I am also doing the rest of my job, so it’s a very slow process. We also had a surprise technical issue (because what good event happens without one), we almost didn’t have our microphone system. That being said, it was up and running but not at top quality. Our amazing IT person was able to get it up about two days before we started. But the day of, we noticed a slight buzz in the background and when he went to fix it, the microphone system broke again for about 10 minutes so we collectively chose that a microphone with a small buzz was better than no microphone at all. With this detail explained, the buzz was more apparent in the recordings than we originally anticipated. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but some of our speakers are soft-spoken people. We want to offer the absolute best product possible, so I am going through and editing everything, and at the same time, I am transcribing and subtitling each talk. Because of this, the recordings are taking significantly longer to finish and upload than we had originally thought. We will have them up on our store as soon as all the recordings are ready. Please be patient with us with the timing of this because as of now, I cannot guarantee or even estimate a date. We will make sure to let you know on our social media pages, in our daily email Catch the Buzz and in the magazine as soon as they are all ready! Until then, we hope you join us at our next event!
]]>It’s not too late! You can still get a virtual ticket!
Ticket Info:
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit https://store.beeculture.com/events/ to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available after the event.
Virtual tickets will only be available for purchase through September 28, 2022.
The Recording will be available for purchase sometime in November.
For the latest information, go to our BEEing Diverse page: https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Here is the second half of our impressive group:
Dorothy Pelanda
Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture
Jackie Park Burris
Jackie Park-Burris Queens, Inc.
Geraldine Wright
Hope Professor of Entomology in the Department of Zoology at University of Oxford, UK
Kathy Summers
Layout and Design for Bee Culture Magazine for 30+ years as well as Assistant Editor for the last several years.
Kim Skyrm
Chief Apiary Inspector of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources
Tammy Horn Potter
Kentucky State Apiarist, author of multiple books
Important Change!
Due to conflicts, Julianne Grose will no longer be speaking at this event. We happy to announce that Hongmei Li-Byarlay will be speaking at this event!
Hongmei Li-Byarlay
Research Associate Professor of Entomology/ Project Director for Pollinator Health at Central State University in Ohio
There are four seasons recognized in a year. But, those four seasons are different in Maine. And different in Alabama and Arizona and Idaho and Oregon and every other State and location within each and every State in between. How you arrange and set up your Apiary location has to take into consideration all the seasonal differences you as a beekeeper, wherever you are, encounter, whether it is in your backyard or in a neighboring field, in the mountains or on the coast. What does your Apiary look like? Is it the same year round or is it organized differently in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter? Share your photos for the 2023 Bee Culture Calendar.
Look at the shape of the photo on each page. Not quite square, certainly not vertical. We lose excellent vertical photos every year because we simply can’t use them. Think of what your photo will look like when framing it with your camera. Then turn your camera 90 degrees and look again. You can take 100 photos to get one good one. Take 100.
Have your shot in either full sun, or full shade, but not both. Your camera won’t like what it sees and won’t do a good job of lighting.
Horizontal shots will do OK but keep the width:height ratio somewhat in mind. Have the subject close enough that we can see the details. So take 100 photos. What the heck?
Take a lot of shots. Lots and lots. Slightly different angles both left and right and up and down. Fuzz down your flash with tissue or partially block it so the light isn’t crisp. If you can, reduce the intensity of the flash, too. Try a hundred ways, and look to see which one worked best. That’s the one we want.
THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Submit your photos as a single jpg file, attached to an email, not embedded in the email. Send one photo per email, and include WITH EACH EMAIL YOUR NAME, MAILING ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER. We got hundreds of photos this year and keeping them all straight when they are not identified gets to be a real difficult task – and there aren’t many of us here to do that. If it isn’t identified, it won’t get looked at, so please label each. Make it easy for us and you stand a much better chance of getting your shot in the calendar.
Deadline for submissions for Bee Culture’s 2023 calendar is October 3, 2022 in our office and on my computer. So mark your calendars now (OH, look! It’s already marked on your 2022 Calendar a month earlier!) and get going. Once entered, photos can be used by Bee Culture magazine.
As usual, send your photos as jpgs to me at Jerry@BeeCulture.com, with 2023 Calendar in the subject line. FOR EVERY ATTACHED PHOTO (1 PER EMAIL) include your name, email, phone and address. If you don’t we can’t use the photo. And good luck!
It’s almost here! Get your tickets now!
Ticket Info:
In Person Only – $100
In Person and Link to Recording – $125
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit https://store.beeculture.com/events/ to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available after the event.
In-person tickets will only be available for purchase through September 22, 2022.
Virtual tickets will only be available for purchase through September 28, 2022.
The Recording will be available for purchase sometime in November.
For the latest information, go to our BEEing Diverse page: https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Here is the first half of our impressive group:
Nina Bagley
Urban Master Beekeeper
Barbara Bloetscher
Ohio Department of Agriculture State Entomologist/Apiarist
Maggie Lamothe Boudreau
Commercial Canadian Beekeeper, owner of Rayons de Miel, a 350 colony operating raising 4000 Queens a year
Susan Cobey
Internationally known Found of New World Carniolan program
Tracy Farone
Professor of Biology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania
Anne Marie Fauvel
Bee Informed Partnership (BIP)
She is speaking to represent the women of BIP who are all pictured
Julianne Grose
Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at BYU
Mark Your Calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2022
Third times the charm… We are enthusiastically moving forward with our annual event with the Beeing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping as the past two cancelled years. We are optimistic about this one happening; however, we will be closely watching any and all situations that may pose an impact on the event. As in the past, if we deem it necessary for the health and safety of travelers, ourselves and the audience we will cancel it again. Hopefully not though.
For more information, go to our BEEing Diverse page (and check back for updates as we continue to get closer): https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Ticket Info:
In Person Only – $100
In Person and Link to Recording – $125
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit https://store.beeculture.com/events/ to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available after the event.
In-person tickets will only be available for purchase through September 22, 2022.
Virtual tickets will only be available for purchase through September 28, 2022.
The Recording will be available for purchase sometime in November.
Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 30
Saturday, Oct. 1
Mark Your Calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2022
Third times the charm… We are enthusiastically moving forward with our annual event with the Beeing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping as the past two cancelled years. We are optimistic about this one happening; however, we will be closely watching any and all situations that may pose an impact on the event. As in the past, if we deem it necessary for the health and safety of travelers, ourselves and the audience we will cancel it again. Hopefully not though.
Speakers Include:
Susan Cobey: Internationally known Founder of New World Carniolan program
Geraldine Wright: Hope Professor of Entomology in the Department of Zoology at University of Oxford, UK
Nina Bagley: Urban Master Beekeeper
Tammy Horn Potter: Kentucky State Apiarist, author of multiple books
Kim Skyrm: Chief Inspector of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
Barbara Bloetscher: Ohio Department of Agriculture State Entomologist/Apiarist
Kathy Summers: Layout and Design for Bee Culture Magazine for 30+ years as well as Assistant Editor for the last several years.
Anne Marie Fauvel: Bee Informed Partnership (BIP)
Tracy Farone: Professor of Biology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania
Maggie Lamothe Boudreau: Commercial Canadian Beekeeper, owner of Rayons de Miel, a 350 colony operation raising 4000 Queens a year.
Jackie Park Burris: Jackie Park-Burris Queens, Inc.
Julianne Grose: Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at BYU
Dorothy Pelanda: Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture*
Each speaker will give two talks. One will be on their journey in beekeeping up until where they are now. The other will be on what they are doing now within the bee field.
*Dorothy Pelanda, as the keynote speaker, will only give one talk.
Ticket Options
In Person Only – $100
In Person and Link to Recording – $125
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit www.Store.BeeCulture.com to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available for purchase after the event.
In-person tickets are only available until Thursday, September 22, 2022.
Virtual tickets are available until Wednesday, September 28, 2022.
The in-person event will be held at the A.I. Root Company Conference Room in Medina, Ohio.
For the most recent, up-to-date information, go to our page dedicated to the event! https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
]]>Mark Your Calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2022
Third times the charm… We are enthusiastically moving forward with our annual event with the Beeing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping as the past two cancelled years. We are optimistic about this one happening; however, we will be closely watching any and all situations that may pose an impact on the event. As in the past, if we deem it necessary for the health and safety of travelers, ourselves and the audience we will cancel it again. Hopefully not though.
For more information, go to our BEEing Diverse page (and check back for updates as we continue to get closer): https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Ticket Info:
In Person Only – $100
In Person and Link to Recording – $125
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit https://store.beeculture.com/events/ to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available after the event.
Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 30
8:00 a.m.: Registration starts
8:30 a.m.: Opening remarks and a short history of the A. I. Root Company
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Speakers
12:00 p.m.: Provided lunch
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Speakers
3:30 p.m.: Q&A panel with speakers
4:25 p.m.: Tours of the A. I. Root Candle Factory
6:00 p.m.: Optional dinner, meet the speakers
Saturday, Oct. 1
8:00 a.m.: Registration starts
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Speakers
12:00 p.m.: Provided lunch
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Speakers
5:00 p.m.: Q&A panel with speakers
Mark Your Calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2022
Third times the charm… We are enthusiastically moving forward with our annual event with the Beeing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping as the past two cancelled years. We are optimistic about this one happening; however, we will be closely watching any and all situations that may pose an impact on the event. As in the past, if we deem it necessary for the health and safety of travelers, ourselves and the audience we will cancel it again. Hopefully not though.
For more information, go to our BEEing Diverse page (and check back for updates as we continue to get closer): https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Here is the second half of our impressive group:
Dorothy Pelanda
Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture
Jackie Park Burris
Jackie Park-Burris Queens, Inc.
Joan Gunter
Past president of ABF, Commercial Beekeeper
Geraldine Wright
Hope Professor of Entomology in the Department of Zoology at University of Oxford, UK
Kim Skyrm
Chief Apiary Inspector of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources
Tammy Horn Potter
Kentucky State Apiarist, author of multiple books
Mark Your Calendars for September 30 – October 1, 2022
Third times the charm… We are enthusiastically moving forward with our annual event with the Beeing Diverse: Inspiring Leaders in Beekeeping as the past two cancelled years. We are optimistic about this one happening; however, we will be closely watching any and all situations that may pose an impact on the event. As in the past, if we deem it necessary for the health and safety of travelers, ourselves and the audience we will cancel it again. Hopefully not though.
For more information, go to our BEEing Diverse page (and check back for updates as we continue to get closer): https://www.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping/
Here is the first half of our impressive group:
Nina Bagley
Urban Master Beekeeper
Barbara Bloetscher
Ohio Department of Agriculture State Entomologist/Apiarist
Maggie Lamothe Boudreau
Commercial Canadian Beekeeper, owner of Rayons de Miel, a 350 colony operating raising 4000 Queens a year
Susan Cobey
Internationally known Found of New World Carniolan program
Tracy Farone
Professor of Biology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania
Anne Marie Fauvel
Bee Informed Partnership (BIP)
She is speaking to represent the women of BIP who are all pictured
Julianne Grose
Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at BYU
Thank you to everyone who attended!
Meeting Address:
Bee Culture Conference Room
640 West Liberty Street
Medina, OH 44256
Speakers:
Nina Bagley
Urban Master Beekeeper
Kim Skyrm
Chief Apiary Inspector of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources
Tracy Farone
Professor of Biology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania
Maggie Lamothe Boudreau
Commercial Canadian Beekeeper, owner of Rayons de Miel, a 350 colony operating raising 4000 Queens a year
Geraldine Wright
Hope Professor of Entomology in the Department of Zoology at University of Oxford, UK
Jackie Park Burris
Jackie Park-Burris Queens, Inc.
Tammy Horn Potter
Kentucky State Apiarist, author of multiple books
Susan Cobey
Internationally known Founder of New World Carniolan program
Dorothy Pelanda
Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture
Each speaker will speak on their journey in beekeeping and what they are doing now within the bee field.
Anne Marie Fauvel
Bee Informed Partnership (BIP)
She is speaking to represent the women of BIP who are all pictured
Barbara Bloetscher
Ohio Department of Agriculture State Entomologist and State Apiarist
Kathy Summers
Layout and Design for Bee Culture Magazine for 30+ years as well as Assistant Editor for the last several years.
Hongmei Li-Byarlay
Research Associate Professor of Entomology/ Project Director for Pollinator Health at Central State University in Ohio
Ticket Options:
In Person Only – $100
In Person and Link to Recording – $125
Virtual Event Only – $50
Virtual Event and Link to Recording – $75
Visit https://store.beeculture.com/events/ to purchase your ticket. In person will be limited to 100 individuals. This event will be recorded and is available as part of some ticket options. It will also be available after the event.
Sponsors:
American Honey Producers Association
Ohio Queen Bee Improvement Project
Schedule:
Friday, Sept. 30
Saturday, Oct. 1
Local Hotels:
Hampton Inn:
3073 Eastpointe Drive
Medina, OH 44256
330-721-8955
Fairfield Inn & Suites:
3125 Eastpointe Drive
Medina, OH 44256
330-722-1722
Super 8 Motel:
5161 Montville Drive
Medina, OH 44256
330-723-8118
Quality Inn:
1435 South Carpenter Road
Brunswick, OH 44212
330-25-1112
Holiday Inn – Akron West:
4073 Medina Road
Akron OH, 44333
330-666-4131
Hilton:
3180 W. Market Street
Akron OH, 44333
330-867-5000
Flights:
Cleveland Hopkins or Akron-Canton Airport
Local Food:
Please visit this link https://www.mainstreetmedina.com/eat–drink.html for a list of local restaurants near the meeting location.
There are also many other chain restaurants around town.
Questions:
Please email info@beeculture.com with any questions you have. And please visit this link as we add more details moving forward!
]]>As I’m sure many of you know, World Bee Day is May 20. To celebrate, the Bee Culture staff worked with our employee council to do something special for all of the A.I. Root company employees. This year, we made goodie bags with some honey candy and sticks, a bee keychain, some pollinator seeds and little cards introducing the Bee Culture staff since we are all relatively new and many do not know us. We also gave each employee a copy of our May issue. Along with the bags, we worked with a local ice cream shop and passed out Lavender Honey Ice Cream to everyone. Overall, it was a very exciting experience for the whole company!
While the council did a quick first pass with the ice cream (it was in the 80’s that day!), Jerry, Emma and Jen went around slower to pass out bags and magazines and answer all of the bee questions many people had.
Jerry wore part of his beekeeping outfit for World Bee Day. He wanted to show off just how messy it can get sometimes, so he didn’t wash it!
To the left, you will see a map of our regions. Within each region, we have many reporters who live in the states send us a report with the prices that they see and/or sell. With all of that information, we then average the total of all responses and that’s where we get our listed prices! If you are interested in contributing please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/qai8NFY2th3a4c696 All reporters who are returning forms will receive a free subscription to Bee Culture!
There are two ways to get to the monthly report. Option 1 is under the “Resources” tab. If you hover on that, you will see a tab that says “Monthly Regional Honey Price Report” just click that and you will see a master list of all the months that are available! For our mobile users, click on the three lines at the top and you will see it listed under Resources. Option 2 is under “Latest Issues.” If you click that and then the issue you would like to see, there will be a link to that month’s report. This is best if you know the specific month. Or to make it really simple, click here to go to the master page: https://www.beeculture.com/monthly-regional-honey-price-report/
Please note that we are actively still adding the reports from the past. The plan is to go back to 2015, but it’s a long process so bear with us. Don’t worry though, we made sure to add all of what we have of 2022 thus far to make sure you can see the most current information. And make sure to check back on July 1 for the July report!
Questions? Email Emma@BeeCulture.com
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