Chris Werner
Chris’ first introduction to bees was as a boy when a swarm moved into a tree in his family’s front yard. Chris’ father called a nearby beekeeper who came and collected the swarm- but she also took time to invite him to learn more about bees. She made time to teach him the basics of beekeeping. After that he kept bees as 4H and FFA projects through high school keeping up to 50 hives. Chris planned to work in the dairy industry but in the 70’s that dream was deflated by the economy and the loss of small dairy farm positions- he was encouraged by older wiser men to try some other kind of work.
One night while watching an old Monty Python sketch they commented “Now for something Completely Different” and so the idea came to him that beekeeping would be something completely different to try as full time work. He was able to get a position with a migratory beekeeper who migrated from Wisconsin to Florida and that was the start of his full time career as a beekeeper! He spent several years learning and being mentored by that beekeeper. Then in 1982 he bought 200 nucleus hives and by the time he met Becky in 1985 he had determined that this was the path he wanted to follow. So- Chris and Becky worked side by side and built Indian Summer Honey Farm from 800 hives to a multi generational migratory operation of 4000 hives.