Robert Beck runs a certified organic beekeeping business in Gerasdorf near Vienna. He is responsible for the propagation of selected genetics (management of breeding material, nursing colonies, mating boxes, young queens), handling veterinary matters, logistics, customer communication and invoicing.
Ing. Franz Obendorfer holds a master degree in beekeeping and runs a professional organic beekeeping business based in Wilfersdorf near Mistelbach in Lower Austria and was appointed head of the Hirschgrund breeding station in 2021. His area of responsibility is performance testing and breeding value estimation, as well as looking after the web shop and social media.
In both farms, we manage a total of about 300 bee colonies.
One of our branches of business is honey production (e.g. for Blütengold® brand). In the region we mainly harvest blossom honey in various varieties (acacia, rapeseed, sunflower, ...).
In breeding, our focus is carniolan pure breeding of the 6 lines of the strain Sklenar. Since we have worked closely together for many years, the step towards cooperation as a breeding cooperation was obvious. By pooling our work and infrastructure, there are many benefits for our customers. One of the most important points is the division of certain work areas, so that each company can focus better on its specialty. Of course we can handle bigger production capacities and the resulting logistics. In recent years we have been able to send our queens to customers from around 25 countries.
Franz Obendorfer is educated skilled worker and also owns a masters degree in beekeeping. Robert Beck is on his way to the masters degree in beekeeping. So we have a profound knowledge about bees. The operation is managed full time - in peak times 7 days a week. Not just as hobbiests. This is very important especially for managing the logistic of queen shippments professionally.
Only with a reasonable quantity of managed hives you can do a rational selection. With our two companies we take care of up to 300 colonies for our honeyproduction. This is a great precondition to run significant performance tests and make steps forward in bee breeding.
We live and work in the former domain of Guido Sklenar. He even lived a couple of years in our hometown. One of our operating sites is located only 7 kilometers away from the famous mating station Hirschgrund. Our queen genetics come from beekeeping master Schleining, more or less the breeding descendant of Sklenar.