InsideTheHive.TV with Dr. Humberto Boncristiani (332)

332 - InsideTheHive.TV with Dr. Humberto Boncristiani

Jim Masucci: Hey, this is Jim Masucci from St. Louis, Missouri. I run a couple hundred hives and a hundred nukes. Welcome to Beekeeping Today.

Jeff Ott: Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast presented by Betterbee, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman: I'm Becky Masterman.

Global Patties: Today's episode is brought to you by the Bee Nutrition Superheroes at Global Patties. Family-operated and buzzing with passion, Global Patties crafts protein-packed patties that'll turn your hives into powerhouse production. Picture this. Strong colonies, booming brood, and honey flowing like a sweet river. It's super protein for your bees, and they love it. Check out their buffet of patties, tailor-made for your bees in your specific area. Head over to www.globalpatties.com and give your bees the nutrition they deserve.

Jeff: Hey, a quick shout-out to Betterbee and all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that, and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out all of our content on the website. There you can read up on all of our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 300 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments and feedback on each episode, and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www.beekeepingtoday.com. Hey, thanks, Jim, for that wonderful opening from the floor of the North American Honey Bee Expo from Missouri. Jim, that was really good.

Becky: Nice. Missouri's got some hot beekeeping weather.

Jeff: Yes, that's for sure. [chuckles]

Becky: Those beekeepers have to work hard in a few months. Not right now, maybe, but I bet they're going to start warming up sooner rather than later.

Jeff: Nice and humid too. This is a good time of year for honey bees and beekeepers, it's very busy. We're planning our season and tamping down those swarms depending on where you are. It's either past swarming season or in the middle of swarming season.

Becky: Or just about to be swarming season. I think last year in Minnesota, we had really warm weather, and they started swarming way before June, but now I think that they're probably going to be right on time, so they're thinking about it now.

Jeff: What's that old saying in this? A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.

Becky: There you go. It's worth a lot more if it goes into your neighbor's eaves and starts building up, and they give you a bill to get your bees out. [laughs]

Jeff: Well, I remember last year it was swarming in the second week of April. I was just not ready for it. I was literally sitting here at my desk. I saw this spike, and it said in the sensors that it was swarming, and I ran outside. I might've said a cuss word, I might've sworn at the swarm, and saw that, and then it started. It was off to the races. It kept up for a long time.

Becky: Pretty impressive. I found a new tool. Remember the Beescape tool that Christina Grossinger shared with us as far as sharing the resources in spring, summer, and fall? It also talks about climate. They have the nicest graph. I actually took a really close look at it where when I'm looking at it for 2025, which was a little bit of a cooler winter and spring versus 2024, which was warmer, it actually has the average temperatures and then it has the graph for the year before, and then it graphs the current year as it's happening.

You can actually see, if you can remember back a year, and you can say, "Oh, yes, last year they were early." You can compare the temperatures this year versus last year. Obviously, you can do that anywhere, but sometimes we need to be reminded about those things. It's just lovely. It's a very handy tool, especially for new beekeepers who are trying to learn what the season means to their bees and so they can at least, if they can remember back or check their notes from last year and see what their bees were doing, then they can maybe get a better idea of being able to predict what's happening this year, so I was excited.

Jeff: Let's include that into the show notes.

Becky: Yes, we can do that.

Jeff: That's a great idea.

Becky: I bring it up during talks all the time, and then I yell at the people in the audience because they start going to it right away. "Don't go there until I'm done talking." [laughs] Then they look up at me and I'm like, "No, I don't care what you do."

[chuckling]

Jeff: You, you on the back, put down your phone. All right. Hey, today's guest, we had Humberto on our show back in, I think it was February, March, or something, and a short talking about the bee losses over the winter. We invited him back, if you recall, to talk about InTheHive.TV and all of that work that he does there. I'm looking forward to talking to him.

Becky: He's doing a lot. He's sending out regular updates to beekeepers, and he is taking that complex science and making it easy to read, which I like in scientists, and easy to understand. I'm excited to hear more about what he's doing.

Jeff: Well, he's out in the green room. Let's invite him in after these quick words from our sponsors.

[music]

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[music]

Jeff: Hey, a big shout-out and thank you to our sponsors. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Sitting around the great big virtual Beekeeping Today Podcast table, all the way from InsideTheHive.TV is Humberto Boncristiani. Humberto, welcome back to the show.

Dr. Humberto Boncristiani: It's my pleasure, Jeff.

Jeff: We had you on a Beekeeping Today Podcast short back in, I believe, end of February when you talked about the colony losses. We did a real quick introduction to you then, but can you give us just who you are, what got you interested in bees, and what you are doing today, and then we'll get into all the many different areas you're working in?

Humberto: Sure, Jeff. Thank you for the invite again. I don't do too many interviews like that, talking about my past and why I do what I do, and so it's a good opportunity to reach out to the beekeepers out there, especially in your program. That is something that I appreciate and follow every new episode. My story with honey bees are long. How much time do we have?

[laughter]

Becky: We can make this a two-parter if we have to. [laughs]

Humberto: For the people that don't know, I'm originally from Brazil. I was born and raised in Brazil as a second-generation beekeeper in my family and with Africanized bees. It's good to tell the story because some people like the story, and I think very few people know those stories. I started-- I hate them. I don't know if I told you that. I hate honey bees for a long time because as a young kid in Brazil with Africanized bees and being basically-- father was tough, is a free labor kind of situation. I got stung a lot, and I would need to work with the bees in a situation that wasn't very fun for a young kid that was not into that too much at the time. My whole life, I try to get rid of them.

I moved to other places, I tried to do other things, and bees always come back to my life somehow. I moved to this city and I hide from everybody and I start a biology degree in my college, but I never tell anybody that I was a bee person. Then they look over there, and I'm looking for jobs, and the only job they have is to work with honey bees to dissect venom glands and work with biochemistry of honey bee venom. I say, "Oh, crap, here we go again. Me and bees again."

[laughter]

Then I do the job, and then I hide everything. Then somebody, "Oh, there's a swarm here. What is those bees going on? Somebody's going to get hurt. Anybody knows what to do?" Oh, here we go again. That's me trying to improvise some way to get there because it's not like a European bee is there too, so we need to be very careful when this things happen. In Brazil, the beekeepers need to act very fast because Africanized bees, they can hurt and even kill if you are not careful enough.

Jeff: For our listeners who may not know this, Africanized bees were brought to this part of the world and started in Brazil back in 1956.

Humberto: Was that what I call a failed experiment. A Brazilian researcher, Dr. Kerr, that was trying to make genetic improvements in the bees in Brazil, he observed that bees in Africa was more strong and produced more honey. He was hope that bringing those genetics to Brazil, he could do some work there and improve the beekeeping industry there. Very long story, but we can talk about that too if you want. [laughs]

Jeff: No. I was just thinking beekeepers here may have had to learn to deal with Africanized bees or may know about it in the southern tier of states, but you grew up with the Africanized bees all around you.

Humberto: Yes, that was my first bee. That's the way I learned how to take care of bees, with Africanized bees. It was even funny. When I got here in United States, I thought the bees here were broken. I need to keep them. [laughter] What's wrong with those bees? They don't do anything. Do something.

Becky: Two things, Humberto. One is that if you're a second generation beekeeper, it means that your father probably did not start out with Africanized bees.

Humberto: No, he did.

Becky: Oh, he did?

Humberto: He did.

Becky: He chose to do it?

Humberto: Yes. There is no other way in Brazil, you only have Africanized now.

Becky: Before those queen excluders were taken off, isn't that how they got [crosstalk] got loose?

Humberto: Oh, there's so many stories. [laughter] We can do a whole episode about that.

Becky: I want to know if that's true. Anyway, but there was a transition in Brazil. It happened quickly, but a lot of beekeepers, right around when you were keeping bees, probably, remembered what the gentle ones were like.

Humberto: Yes, but Dad started not very young. Dad start later in his life, was not something that he was doing for a long, long time. He started with Africanized too. That was my life with bees and I'm trying to get rid of them. I told you about the college and then something happened. Then I'm moving, no more bees. I'm going to do my master and my PhD in a medical school. For sure they're not going to have any bees there.

That's when I'm doing with virus. I'm doing vaccines for kids. I'm doing molecular virology for human viruses, and then colony collapse disorder happened. United States and USDA were looking for molecular virology specialized in a very unique family of viruses that was affecting the bees here. Guess what kind of virus I was studying in Brazil. In humans it was very related with the CCD virus, my virus. I was the perfect candidate for the USDA, so they brought me in because I was a beekeeper, know molecular virology very well, have experience with that family of viruses with the IAPV at the time, Israeli acute paralysis virus. That's the way I got in United States.

Since then, I decide that I look at the skies and say, "Okay, God, I give up. I'm a bee guy. I got the message. I'm not going to change. I'm not going to be hiding. I know this is my thing. Let's do it then. Let's do it." Then I start my career as a honey bee virologist, a honey bee researcher here in United States. I never study bees in Brazil. My whole academic life in Brazil was dedicated to viruses, human viruses and biology, but never honey bee, other than that job because I need the money.

[laughter]

Then after here, I've been doing research in many institutions here. USDA for four years, then University of Maryland for two years. University of North Carolina and in Greensboro for two years. The University of Florida for three years with Jamie Ellis. It was a very unique experience where I start to-- my whole job, my whole goal there in my lab there is to work with commercial beekeepers. They were looking to do research specific for commercial operations, something that could add value very fast and could solve problems a little faster than the way academia handle problems. Beekeepers need things faster. I was working with them.

That was very nice to the point that the beekeepers start to ask me, "Humberto, we need you solo. We need you out of the academia. You go to the extra mile. We need that kind of thing. I feel that the academia is holding the things that we could do together." There is some truth on that. Academia have a lot of layers and bureaucracies and ways to do things. Since I was a beekeeper, I understand the dynamic. I could generate value to beekeepers in a way that they like it. That's the way I start my whole consulting business now.

I give up academia and open Inside The Hive Media & Consulting Incorporated which is associated with the website, insidethehive.tv and my YouTube channel where I create a lot of content for people at home that appreciate bees and want to learn more about bee biology, beekeeping in general, honey bee research. With the YouTube channel, I generate the leads I need to keep my business going.

What I do exactly today is I help commercial beekeepers to optimize their operations, solve problems. When they have problems, they send me. I build mini laboratories for them, for the people that have the cash, they need to do things internally and want to do private research and want to keep the IP for themselves. They want to share the results, so they have an idea. "Humberto, I need you to test this for me." "Yes, sir." I go there, I prepare the experiments, we process everything. I give him the results. I got the check and I go home.

Jeff: What kind of research are you doing for commercial operations?

Humberto: Commercial guys are very creative. They have something that I call observational knowledge. Is very important too. Is something the academia don't appreciate too much, is that when you're observing something for many years, your brain start to capture trends and you can see it. Beekeepers have this gut feelings about things and they want to test things like some specific oils or products against mites or Nosema or small hive beetles. They can see things that science-- the normal way we do science is, not that it's not science, but those observations take a lot of time. When they have that click, and a lot of times they're right. When I go there and do the testing, we got some interesting results and they keep the sample.

The kind of projects most of the time is helping the crew to identify things. I teach the crew microscopes and things like that, or we test different compounds, different oils, different things to see if we get results that will be beneficial for that specific operation, or find problems like-- What can I share? Sometimes I go to places and they're having trouble. One day I just figured it out that the water source, it was the problem. They're getting water from the place that the water have a-- How you call? Something was growing in the lake. They have a little lake there and when they make their feeding with that water, in one part of the operation they're having one results, in the other part of the operation they didn't have the problem and they didn't have the time to stop and think and find and look.

I took the time investigating, I found out the water source was the problem. Then after we identify that, the whole operation went back to normal and we fix it. This details that commercial guys and the crew doesn't have the time, but sometimes if there is a problem, you need a dedicated person to stop by with no biases and challenge the beekeeper, challenge the owner of the operation, trying to be impartial to find a problem because it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money when things go in different directions.

Jeff: You're like a private investigator for beekeepers.

Humberto: That's it. That's it. I was known around as "Dr. Bee."

[laughter]

Jeff: Did you just pick that up on your own? Did you decide, "Hey, I'm going to put out my investigator shingle," or did they just start calling you, and--

Humberto: It started with the work we were doing together in University of Florida. They saw that I have the eyes. It's a very close kind of people. To get into that circle, they need to trust you. It's very hard to get into it. I was very lucky that I could get into it and a lot of them trust me for work today. This is one side of what I do in my consultant company, is to help commercial beekeepers, but the other side is to help companies to bring new technologies to develop and bring new technologies to the beekeeping industry.

I have helped dozens and dozens of companies so far. Some of them, people already know, and Dalan Animal Health with the vaccine, the new vaccine for honey bees. There is a Israeli ToBe technology from Israel is bringing that frame and they're really precise to deliver chemicals inside the hive and able to help against Varroa mites with almost 90% efficacy. It works, I tested myself. It's something that I can put my word behind, and makes me proud to look back and say, "I did something that is really helping some beekeepers there."

There is a lot of companies trying to get in, but because it's a so unique industry, it's very hard for them using the teachings they got in other industries and how to marketing, how to talk to people. It's absolutely different. If they use the same principles they use in other industries, they're very likely going to fail here because the beekeepers are going to probably close the door on their face. It's like, "Get out of here. You have no idea what we're talking about." [chuckles]

Jeff: You mentioned Dalan, and they've been a sponsor for the podcast and also I see on your website Strong Microbial and they've been with our podcast since early, early on. You work with the best.

Humberto: I work with great people. That's the difference with what I do, I guess, is I'm vested. I need to generate real value, otherwise-- and I think that's important. When your livelihood depends on what you're going to say, if you don't have a system to say things that are not going to really generate value and people are not able to see it, your business is done. When you're vested, that's what I think was the difference that commercial beekeepers will start to trust instead of academics that are not vested. They can say whatever they want and there is no consequences for them.

It's not a criticism. It's just a fact, and it happens. People want to try to help, but when you're not vested, your opinion, sometimes you're sloppy about how far can you go with the way you think. I wrote in my newsletter an example that I think in Australia with mites, they killed a lot of bees, and was the effort with the government and the academics. I was looking at the whole story, I said, "Wow, let's watch this, because I don't think that's going to turn out pretty good with a great idea to kill a lot of bees to try to stop the spread of Varroa mites." Then I look, "Oh, but where did they base that information? Oh, they talked with the beekeeper. Oh, and they believed the beekeeper saying the time that he found the Varroa mites. Oh, fantastic."

[laughter]

Absolutely no experience that beekeepers hide information. You need to be careful about how you handle information direct to the beekeepers because they have their reputation and they get embarrassed that something isn't. They base a whole effort of government, academic institutions, and people, money, resources based on information that I knew for a fact from the very beginning was not reliable. Just to see an example about a guy that is in the field and vested. I'm very happy about what I'm doing. I think I'm the only guy that does what I do, so I'm good.

Jeff: Hey, let's take this opportunity for a quick break to hear from a couple of our sponsors and we'll be right back, and let's talk a little bit more about the other aspects of what you're doing with InsideTheHive.TV.

[music]

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[music]

Becky: Welcome back, everybody. I'm going to start with a follow-up question before we move on to those other things. I'm curious, what does your schedule look like? Because if you're visiting other beekeepers to work with them on different projects, I'm thinking as a research scientist, my experience is that you have a field season and it's really short and you only have so much time, but you must be planning your trips very carefully in order to maximize the ability to complete individual projects. Is scheduling a problem?

Humberto: Scheduling is definitely a problem, and that's a problem with my business here too. It's hard for me to expand because there is no people like me and I cannot train people to become like me in a month or two. Everything depends on me. That's why I'm starting a little shift right now and moving away from commercial beekeepers, helping them directly in their operation and working more with companies, which is just me over the phone or computer, guiding them about how things work or what could be the design, or, "The product should be this way instead of that way. I can link you with a commercial person. I can help in many different ways with marketing with my YouTube channel if I feel the product has some value."

I'm moving more to that direction right now instead of being in the field. I travel a lot to give talks in beekeeping clubs, associations, nationally and internationally, and this is fun. This is what I'm doing, that most of my travel now is for talks. Commercial beekeepers always know my phone. They call me and we discuss. Then if something comes up, "Humberto, we really need you here," that's when I just, "Okay, then this, we're going to need to do something more drastic," and I'm going to need to stop other things, stop my videos on YouTube and stuff like that.

Becky: That actually leads very nicely to my second question. You are generating so much content. It's amazing how much information you are putting out there. When you are reviewing the research, your end product is really the result of multiple hours of reading and researching. Do you sleep at night? How are you actually maintaining the production of all of your content, the newsletters and the YouTube work?

Humberto: Let's talk about the YouTube then. I think we talked about everything else, and now let's focus on the YouTube. On top of the whole thing that I just said, I decided to do YouTube. It started very interestingly, was I want to show my kids that a old person can do social media, [laughter] just to prove a point, but I start to enjoy the process, especially when I arrived here. I don't think my English is perfect. The video was a tool for me to communicate better. I had the time to say and to practice, and to put the thoughts together. That helps with the development of my English skills.

I still enjoy in the process and read. The research articles to me is easy. I like and enjoy. I have passion about bees, the honey bee biology specifically. I enjoy doing these things because not only I'm learning, but one of the things that give me more pleasure is teaching. People learning from me give me pleasure. It's something that I have. I don't know how to explain, but it's good. I enjoy doing it, and I'm going to keep doing it. It's free for everybody. I like that too.

In Brazil, we have a free education, so I feel obligated to give it back. All my education was free in Brazil, a PhD, master. I got everything for free. Was not easy to get into. It's not a give-you-candy. It is a national competition that just have a few spots. You need to work your butt off. Can I say butt here? Okay.

Jeff: Yes.

[laughter]

Humberto: You need to work your butt off to get on the top, but once you get into the top and be selected, you get everything for free, which was great. Otherwise, I would not be able because I came from a family that my parents can barely read.

Jeff: Let's talk about the videos because that's how I was first attracted to the work that you're doing, is through the YouTube videos. They're not a standard beekeeper video about keeping bees. Your work is really, really nicely done and well produced, and it's educational.

Humberto: When I look at the YouTube, normally the way I think is a rule that I have with me, not only for life actually, not for work or for life, is do something that you can do different and good better. When I look at YouTube, what I can do there that nobody's doing, and I can do it nicely, and that was the way is. My videos about bees are not practical beekeeping thing. There is a reason for that, because I have experience in many different areas with beekeeping and Brazil, different climate, different environments, different protocols, different bees, different genetics.

I know if I give an advice here and somebody in Turkey get this or in other environments and use that advice, I could be harming his bee operation because that is a different bee, is a different environment, is a different plant. I know that, I know it's hard for people to see or understand. In YouTube, they just want something fast. I want to learn, I'm going to copy, and that's it. I feel the responsibility to teach people that the way your development with bees, you need to become a honey bee. You're going to be in contact with your bees in the environment that you are in so much, and after so many years, you become part of that system. You become part of the colony. You are able to sense things for the bees.

That's different in different environments. Because I had those mistakes when I got here, I need to reset. All my knowledge about bees were useless. I learned a lot from commercial guys. A lot of the things that I knew in the past are just, "This was useless, I can't do anything with this here. I need to reset." That's the way I developed this to be very careful about what I'm going to say and to whom I'm going to say.

I don't open my mouth too much. People got upset about that. They want to know stuff and want to learn from me, but I'm very careful when I open my mouth. If I don't know the environment or the bees a little bit more, it is very difficult to say something that are going to have any value to a person. That's my philosophy. When I do my videos, it's more about information and ways to think about it. Ultimately, what I ask people is, it's your responsibility to take all these things, process yourself, make a decision, and be responsible for the decision you make. Don't blame anyone, that's on you.

[laughter]

That's my approach. What I do normally, I get scientific articles, and I try to translate them in a language that people can know. Academics can absorb something and be interested, entertained and learn something new. In doing the process, I am still learning. I like to read all those papers. I like to keep myself updated about what's going on in the industry and what my fellow researchers are doing. It's fun, and the beekeepers are appreciating and the people at home. I'm having a lot of people with positive comments and happy about it. I said, okay, it's being useful. I'm going to keep doing it.

Becky: Humberto, I've noticed, especially just giving a few talks this year, that it seems like the beekeeping audience is just getting smarter and smarter and more well-informed. I just threw out there, for example, what's your management strategy? I just got this beautiful, we do this there, and then we do this, and because of this, we do this, and just this really elaborate, well-put-together strategy. I thought, wow, they're into it now, and they're absorbing this information. Are you finding a lot of beekeepers who are really receptive to the information that you're sharing, and in your interactions with them, are you as impressed as I am as far as how they're really taking science in now that it's so accessible?

Humberto: There is two groups. The young generation, yes. The young generation are more prone to learn science and learn the scientific method, understand the difference between science and truth, something that I like to emphasize a lot. When a scientist says something when we are discussing something at the edge of knowledge, just because it's one article doesn't mean it's true. We need to repeat, we need other people.

I teach the people how to become a scientist, like the thinking process of the scientific informant. The young generation are on it. They love it. They like it. They like to ask questions. They don't have previous biases from the past. The older generation, some people, yes, but there's a lot of people from the old generation that came from different protocols and different times, where actually, it didn't have to do anything with the bees. The bees were just able to take care of themselves. They didn't have all the problems we have today. They still stuck with that mentality that, well, it worked before, supposed to work it now, don't tell me what to do. We're still having that kind of mentality sometimes.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that these are the people that are closing their doors. If you cannot adapt, you fail. That's the hard truth on that. It breaks my heart to see some people that didn't have to be suffering the way they're doing, or with the amount of death and problems, if they just trying to adapt, do something new, experimentation. Be a scientist a little bit because not only you, but your family depend on it. As I said, personal responsibility is something that I take very seriously. If you want to go that path, be my guest, but don't blame other people for your decisions.

Jeff: You cover a lot of ground in your InsideTheHive media. You have the newsletter, you have YouTube, of course, you have your consulting, which we've talked about, and you have a podcast we can talk about. You reach out and touch so many different people in so many different ways, and you cover a wide range of topics in beekeeping. What have you learned that's surprised you or has made you either really question your background or really reinforced what you're doing?

Humberto: Something that is not a surprise to me but it's still there and happens all the time is the realization that sometimes we need to keep an intense exercise to identify when we ourselves are inside a bubble. We need to find ways to get out of that bubble so we can move on and learn, because once you are in a bubble of a thought or scientific process or something that you're not part where the truth is, you're relying in things that you think it's true but it's not, you enter in a bubble that you can't get out. That's when the thing hit the fan, because then you cannot correct yourself. You cannot fix the problem.

That happens a lot, but especially with bees, because people don't realize that we're doing experiments as a researcher, especially with few trials, for example. The great majority of the variables, we cannot control. When people come and say, "Oh, I got a few trial in that have this result," and I always ask, "How many times you repeat that few trials and got the same result?" and then the silences.

For example, I know for a fact if I go to a laboratory doing laboratory conditions, I can get Brazilian green propolis and treat for Nosema ceranae, happens all the time. I know how to replicate this in laboratory all the time. You fit them in specific ratio and I can get rid of Nosema or do not let Nosema replicate. Green propolis helps with Nosema. I try to make this happen in a few trials seven times. None of them I got the results I got from the lab, but I know in the lab it works 100% of the time.

When I see a situation like that, to me it is clear. We don't have the cards to play. We were not controlling the cards when in a field or in a beekeeping operation itself. Sometimes something happen in our apiaries and we need to guess. That's why I trust the gut feelings of commercial guys that are doing this for many years in the same region, the same environment. Those gut feelings are from observations. It's very useful material.

A lot of scientists like to, "Oh yes, guy saying that crap." I was just, "No, hold on. Let's listen, because this come from a lot of observation. Maybe the guy doesn't know how to express himself. Maybe the guy is using words that's not compatible for the academic way of communication. Hold on. It's just me and my dad." It's so easy for me.

When I try to talk with dad about things, I need to completely shift the way I talk about things, the words I use, so he can rely on that and start to try to understand what I'm saying, try to change the way he's saying so he can communicate with me better, because in his head he saw something, he know, he just cannot express the way we able to understand. Because for me to understand, I need 15 years of him doing the same thing over and over. Then he saw, "Oh, he's there." I'm sure it's something related with that thing that is creating this problem but I don't even know what it is.

I create all those anxieties and that create a lot of tensions between academics and beekeeper sometimes. It's more about communication. First, you need to believe what the guy's saying and go one step further and try to understand the person. Give it time, because a lot of the things that happens to me in the field that we got good results and could generate a lot of value to beekeepers is to take the time, listen to the guy, sit down, go to a dinner, let the guy talk, gather that information, bring it home. Process, take the time because might be something there.

Jeff: Think outside the bubble.

Humberto: For example, I have an example and I'm doing a whole newsletter with that because I thought it was a government official come out and basically saying that all the beekeepers that buy probiotics are wasting their times. Basically, they're saying they're dumb. There was a letter in a big magazine of honey bee, bee culture magazine.

I was just like, "Really? Tell me why." "Oh, because we did a field trial here." "Oh, how many times did you repeat that?" "Oh, we just did once." "Oh, you did one field trial, and then you go with your authority, a government researcher, and you're going to put the whole industry down because you got an experiment that didn't work?" I had to intervene. Because science is a process, especially in beekeeping, especially with bee biology, you cannot control all the variables so be careful when you open your mouth. I pick the fights sometimes and people can follow my newsletter too if you want to see my fights.

[laughter]

Becky: Not only are the fights exciting, also livestream. You do livestream conversations with people. Tell us about that.

Humberto: I'm not expert in everything and I know a lot of experts in other fields that have so many stories and so many things to share but do not have a opportunity to talk and then now they have. I like those conversations because my goal with this conversation, they're exactly this bridge that I'm trying to do, trying to get these people that have a lot to say, a lot of knowledge and bring them in an environment that can feel comfortable and we can talk very nice. Just to chat like we're in a bar or something and people can understand more. When you're relaxed, it's not an academic environment that you need to put the tie, you need to say in specific way, that is just so intimidating.

No, I just want to, "Hey dude, let's talk. Let's cut those fancy words, whatever. You don't need those things here. Just let's talk the science. Why did you do that? How do you think the bees going to react with that?" Just like a normal person at home and people start to appreciate that and learn more and ask questions. It's something that I notice more, is that people at home asking questions to the experts, something that people a lot of times they're just so shy. I'm not going to say something that are going to look stupid. I'm not going to say anything I'm going to look stupid. No, all the questions are appreciated. I don't have time for all the questions and sometimes I apologize in advance.

That's what we need. The learning process never start if you do not ask questions, and people at home, all ages and all backgrounds, and people asking questions, and then we start to realize, oh, there is a gap of knowledge in this area. Maybe I need to do more videos about this because people don't know much about this. That give me the guidance I need so I can generate the content so I can fill up the gaps and just keep the people learning from the site and me busy and happy doing that because I have pleasure doing it.

Jeff: That's very good. You do fantastic work. I encourage our listeners who have not gone out and looked at your work, both on the website and also on the YouTube video, to check it out. The videos are great. The production is wonderful. I'd like to sit here and pick your brain how you do all your graphics. That's wonderful. You put a lot of effort into that. Definitely would be valuable for anybody to go out and view it.

Becky: I also want to mention that if you go to insidethehive.tv, you can register for your free newsletter.

Humberto: Yes. The newsletter is free. It is free.

Becky: Do you also have another level of support and content? Can you tell us about that before we go?

Humberto: Yes, let's talk about how people can support me if they see value in my videos and the things that I create. I create a system that can generate some income here just for me to keep generating the content because there's a lot of work. Now I found a very good editor in Brazil that's also a honey bee researcher, and she's helping me a lot. Actually, that money goes directly to her. She can help me with the editing now because for many years I was doing everything by myself and it was killing me. Now I found this person, Dr. Anna. Anna, if you're listening, thank you very much for all the work you do. One day we're going to do an interview with you to introduce you to the people.

We have a couple of ways that people can help in the creation of-- I have the academy if you go to insidethehive.tv/academy. When you go to the academy, there is a bunch of levels of support, $5 a month, $10 a month, $25 a month, with different things that you can get. You can get your name on my videos in the end of my videos. You become part of the academy where I teach scientific how to think.

Basically, it's not about bees in general, but is a knowledge about how to go to the library and find the papers, how to dissect the article, how to read the article, what is the abstract. I teach how to think, basically, and I have challenges there. Go to the website and find subjects about bees and hygienic behavior and use this. I teach them how to use all the free resources available on the internet that people doesn't know. I show all the resources there, how people can find. There's a lot of things for free, a lot of free eBooks, and a lot of things that are in those challenges.

This is the academy where I teach people how to think, avoid logical fallacies. It's fun. I already mentioned that people can get-- Sometimes I have the podcast when I have the interviews. It's not live, and it is recording. It's part of the academy too. If you're part of the academy and the researcher doesn't like to go live, so we're going to have, just like we're doing right now, is a recorded conversation. I bring all my students live with the permission of the speaker.

It's a very private, intimate environment that people can even ask more questions instead of the YouTube, where we are competing with the attention with thousands of people. This is something the academy that is fun. If you want your brand, at the end of my videos too, there is tiers for everything there. It can help me to keep creating those videos that on YouTube. This is one way to help me keep going. The other way that I start very recently, which is the newsletter, because I start to enjoy the writing process because it keep my brain focused and it's not something-- I start to be a little concerned about social media that need to be everything fast and first.

I start to be more cautious about, okay, let's wait this. Let this new subject to cook a little bit. I'm going to get all the information, I'm going to write it down something after I spend the time thinking. I decide to do the newsletter now, where I'm putting a lot of content in a writing format. Since great part of my audience prefer to read, which is great, I think more from the older generation, I guess, it is being very, very good. I'm getting a lot of people getting in and it's free.

You go insidethehive.tv/newsletter or something like that. I'm sure you can find that easily. Put your email. Every time I have a new writing, it goes straight to your email to read about what's going on in the bee world, where I am in the world, what's going on with my projects and subjects that people ask me questions about, so I write about it.

If you want to go to the extra step and get the extra things, there is the premium version of the newsletter that you can get where I show behind the scenes of things. Sometimes I get videos from other beekeepers in Turkey and China that I want to share how people are doing something. I offer those little things and it is part only on the premium version of the newsletter to get some extra content just in appreciation from the support. That is about, I think it's a $10 a month. You can find all my fights there too, because the fights are free.

[laughter]

Jeff: Well, Humberto, we're running up against the end of the time here, but really enjoyed having you on the show. I think our listeners will get a lot out of reviewing everything that you have available, both free and the other ways that they can review what they can do to support your work. It's really good stuff.

Humberto: Thank you. I feel so glad with the invitation because normally, I'm behind just listening to you guys, and I'm here. It's so interesting and exciting, actually.

Becky: Humberto, you were our first call when the honey bee crisis, the recent one occurred. We really appreciate the fact that you were knowledgeable, and you were so accessible.

Humberto: Anytime. You guys have my phone number, and that's what I do for a living. If bees are in trouble somewhere, very likely I'm already there.

[laughter]

Becky: I'm wondering if there's a costume involved. A bee superhero. [laughs]

Humberto: The Doctor Bee with a cape. I need something like that.

Jeff: There you go. Big bee on your chest. All right, thank you so much for joining us today, and we look forward to having you back on a regular basis.

Humberto: My pleasure. Anytime, anywhere, Jeff.

Becky: We're going to take you up on that. Thank you.

Humberto: Thank you, Becky, too.

Jeff: That was really fun talk with Humberto Boncristiani. I had to say that because I screwed it up the very beginning, but Humberto's a great communicator, and I really love his work.

Becky: I see great things as far as working with him in the future. He's just got so much great knowledge, and I like his approach to sharing research and putting everything into perspective.

Jeff: I like his keeping it real and scientific, but there's flexibility there and there's a lot of room to investigate and explore.

Becky: A lot of respect for beekeepers knowing what a healthy animal looks like and what a sick animal looks like. If they see something is going on, let's trust them especially some of these beekeepers, their sample size is 10,000 colonies or more. When you're operating with that many animals, you get to be an expert pretty quickly.

Jeff: Well, that about wraps it up for this episode. Before we go, I want to encourage our listeners to follow us and rate us five stars on Apple Podcast or wherever you download and stream the show. Even better, write a review and let other beekeepers looking for a new podcast know what you like. You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews tab along the top of any webpage.

We want to thank Betterbee and our regular longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books, for their generous support. Finally, and most importantly, we want to thank you, the Beekeeping Today Podcast listener, for joining us on this show. Feel free to leave us questions and comments on our website. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks a lot, everybody.

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