About Sklenar

Guido Sklenar was born on June 15, 1871, in the small town of Carpano, near the then Austrian naval port of Pula in Istria. His father, an instrument maker and later a piano and organ builder, came from Teschen in Moravia, and his mother from Olmütz, also in Moravia. At the age of four, after his father finished his work in Istria, Guido moved with his parents and siblings to Teschen an der Olsa. He spent his youth there, attending elementary school, four years of secondary school, and then, like his three siblings, a teacher training college.

Guido Sklenar could be described as a typical "Austrian of the Austro-Hungarian Empire." Born in Istria, he spent his youth and was educated in North Moravia. Later, he worked as a teacher and school principal in the Weinviertel region of Lower Austria, which became his true home. From his earliest childhood, Guido was interested in everything related to nature and began to breed animals. Initially, these were just mealworms for his great tit or silkworms to supplement his pocket money.

He also quickly learned his father's hobby, the grafting of fruit trees, and it later became one of his many hobbies.

Guido Sklenar was an exceptionally versatile and talented person!

He was not only the most successful queen breeder later on, but had also previously been involved in breeding animals such as hunting dogs and canaries, with which he conducted all sorts of crossbreeding experiments. Botany also fascinated him. Brush pollination of dahlias and the breeding of roses, etc., filled his limited free time. One of his great passions was hunting, which he was able to pursue until he was seventy years old.

He was also an outstanding musician, playing the violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, and organ to perfection. Throughout his life, he taught countless children how to play various instruments, tuned hundreds of pianos and organs, played in a wide variety of musical groups, whether performing light music or chamber music, which he particularly loved, and served as choirmaster and organist in several parishes. Then there was the fire department, which urgently needed a secretary, the local savings club, which was looking for a reliable and honest treasurer, and several students who desperately needed tutoring.

Guido Sklenar first encountered bees at the teacher training college's own apiary and was immediately captivated by the craft. Upon saying goodbye to his fellow professors after graduating from high school, his natural science professor told him: "You must become a beekeeper." Had the experienced educator already recognized his nascent talent?

August 1, 1890: Guido Sklenar was appointed assistant teacher in Bullendorf near Mistelbach, a small town in the Weinviertel region of Lower Austria, where he spent four years. Since his time was likely not fully occupied, the ambitious teacher pursued taxidermy, preparing various animals. With the approval of the regional school board, he sold his specimens (crows, buzzards, weasels, siskins, etc.) to schools in Lower Austria, several other Austrian states as far afield as Tyrol, and even to Bohemia and Moravia. After ten years of working with highly toxic arsenic specimens, he reluctantly had to give up this interesting hobby and additional source of income, as Guido, who had grown up in a strict household, was already saving every penny to one day buy his own home.

In 1894, Guido Sklenar was transferred at his own request to Mannersdorf near Orth an der Donau, in the Gänserndorf district. Before his departure, he became engaged to his future wife, Johanna Merhulik, whose father, a master tailor in Vienna, owned a summer house and a sizable apiary with 36 hives in Kettlasbrunn near Mistelbach. Father Merhulik had an unbridled respect for his bees; his greatest vice, in Guido's eyes, was the constant use of his enormous smoker, so Guido eventually took up beekeeping himself by mutual agreement. In his memoirs, he writes: "Thus, two birds were killed with one stone for me; my Hannerl, through her extraordinary kindness and unwavering loyalty, raised me to be a good husband, and Father Merhulik, through his beekeeping vices, made me a capable beekeeper."

In late June 1896, Guido Sklenar married and in 1897 took over the school branch in Schlosshof, Gänserndorf district, Lower Austria. His wife was employed as a needlework teacher in Schlosshof and the neighboring village of Markthof. Here, Guido was able to resume his beekeeping activities, as the head teacher in Markthof owned a large apiary and regularly picked up his wife from her duties in Markthof anyway.

He also enjoyed a close friendship with the neighboring beekeepers from Groissenbrunn. His first child, a daughter, was born in Schlosshof. Not only his firstborn daughter, but later also a six-year-old and a fourteen-year-old son, lost their lives in accidents. Guido Sklenar was survived only by his son Otto and daughter Hansi, who remained his closest collaborator until his death.

In 1898, Guido Sklenar became a permanent teacher at a larger school in Spannberg, Gänserndorf district, with four male teachers and his wife Hannerl, who taught needlework. There, he tended the beehives of his superior, senior teacher Parth, for almost the entire year. Parth was very ill and, as a result, often unable to work for months at a time. A stroll through Spannberg often leads past numerous trees that originated from Guido Sklenar's tree nursery. This nursery, consisting of four large beds, was located in the school garden. According to his own account, he not only supplied interested customers but also provided the community with 200 mature fruit trees annually.

In 1906, Sklenar finally obtained the long-awaited position of headmaster in Hauskirchen, Mistelbach district. His predecessor was said to be a notorious drunkard, and the second teacher, a woman, had been unable to assert herself in the two-classroom school. However, as expected, he quickly restored order to the school and was finally able to establish his own apiary in the school garden. He also took over the remaining bee colonies from his father-in-law in nearby Kettlasbrunn. Within a short time, his apiary had grown to 154 colonies. His greatest pride, however, were his 22 handcrafted Gerstung hives, which he had expertly made. At his father's beekeeping business in Teschen, he had learned to use chisels and planes from a very young age, at his father's insistence and not always to his own delight.

Following his motto "He who writes, remains," Guido Sklenar was a freelance contributor to various trade journals, including "Bienenvater" (Father of Beekeeping), where he worked for many years as a "question and answerer." He was, among other things, briefly president of the Lower Austrian Beekeepers' Association, and later a member of the "Main Committee of the Austrian Imperial Association." He was also the founder and first chairman of the "Austrian Queen Breeders' Association," which operated according to strict statutes adopted by many other countries, as well as chairman and later honorary chairman of the beekeeping associations of Großkrut and Mistelbach.

Besides hunting, Guido was also involved in breeding and training hunting dogs. He must have been a great expert in this field as well, since his clients often included prominent names such as Prince Ybsilanti, Count Münser-Langenlage, Count Branditz, Baroness Motesitzky, Baron Silberstein, and others. However, his greatest passion was beekeeping, which gradually pushed all his other activities into the background. Guido Sklenar actually began queen breeding out of necessity. His top colony simply refused to swarm, and Guido, in turn, was determined to breed exclusively from this colony at any cost. After thoroughly studying specialist literature on beekeeping from Switzerland, Sklenar acquired the necessary basic knowledge.

In his first year, he was able to overwinter 30 colonies with 47-daughter queens, laying the foundation for the later world-famous queen breeder Guido Sklenar.

Where did this strain 47, the later Sklenar bee, come from? Guido Sklenar was asked this question countless times, and he answered it with his characteristic candor as follows: "The question I'm most frequently asked is about the origin of strain 47. I honestly don't know the exact answer myself. It simply appeared, during my very first years of beekeeping. I had taken over 36 bee colonies from my father-in-law at that time; they were located in the neighboring village of Kettlasbrunn. It was among these colonies that I found it. So, it's not my own breeding product, at least not in its origin. My only merit lies in the fact that I recognized it, nurtured it carefully, as was the case with many other valuable strains, and bred it methodically and systematically over decades of painstaking work, striving to promote all its good qualities and eliminate all undesirable traits. In terms of lineage, strain 47 belongs to the Lower Austrian bee race, a Carniolan branch, which Ehrenfels himself praised highly for its many virtues."

"Previously, it was housed in an old, rather musty hive, the number of which I can't recall; I made new hives myself. The original colony was also placed in one of these, and so the colony was christened Colony 47." Colony 47, or the "grey miller's wife" as Guido Sklenar affectionately called it, is therefore the ancestor of the later Carnica/Scroton Sklenar.

This "renaming" took place in 1939 on the occasion of the opening of the "Hirschgrund" breeding station in Mistelbach, in honor of its original breeder, Guido Sklenar. Sklenar never saw himself as a scientist, but as a practical man who pursued his goal with diligence and perseverance.

He was already known in specialist circles through his contributions to several publications, so it was inevitable that he would soon be approached by many beekeepers to hold a queen rearing course. He announced it in his journal, "Mein Bienenmütterchen" (My Little Bee Mother), and was astonished when 200 participants registered for the first course. This course was held in two parts, and further courses followed, so that the small Weinviertel village of Hauskirchen quickly developed into a "Mecca" for interested queen breeders. The participants came from all walks of life. In a single course, for example, there was one general, four colonels, one private who had been seconded to the course, pastors, doctors, teachers, civil servants, merchants, farmers, craftsmen, etc., all united without any class prejudice by a small, unassuming creature – our bee. Guido Sklenar forged lifelong friendships with many of the course participants. Unfortunately, all the guest books were completely destroyed in the fire of 1945.

In the summer of 1922, after Guido Sklenar retired following 32 1/2 years of service, he moved with his family to a newly built house at Waisenhausgasse 14 in Mistelbach. A new apiary also awaited its new inhabitants there. From then on, Guido devoted himself almost exclusively to beekeeping, supported by his daughter Hansi (later called Hannerl by friends, but always Hansi to her father) and later, after 1946, by his son-in-law, teacher Hans Weber, who later became a senior school inspector and headmaster in Mistelbach.

The first edition of his newsletter, "Mein Bienen-Mütterchen" (My Little Bee Mother), was published in 1922, reaching a circulation of 12,000 copies at its peak. It was published monthly and, after his death in 1953, was continued by his daughter, Hannerl Weber-Sklenar. Following her unexpected death in 1983, the "Internationale Bund der Sklenarzucht e.V." (IBSZ e.V.), founded in 1955 and based in Germany, took over its publication.

In 1923, Guido Sklenar published his most important work, "Beekeeping Practice," which has been updated repeatedly since. It is still considered one of the most important textbooks for novice beekeepers, especially due to Guido Sklenar's distinctive writing style.

Part II in particular, where Sklenar deals exclusively with breeding practices, is presented in a very clear and concise manner, so that even beekeepers who have not yet dealt with queen breeding can easily understand the principles of breeding that need to be observed.

In 1932, Guido Sklenar was awarded the title of Economic Advisor by the then Federal Chancellor and Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Dollfuss, for his achievements in the field of Austrian beekeeping. In 1935, an issue of the trade journal "Mein Bienenmütterchen" (My Little Beekeeper) reported that "there are already 109 registered breeders of strain 47, specifically 24 in Austria, 76 in Germany, 8 in Czechoslovakia, and one in Poland." By 1939, this number had risen to 241, all enthusiastically and successfully breeding strain 47. This led the German Beekeepers' Association to decide to establish the largest mating station for this bee in the German Reich in Mistelbach. A sturdy wooden building in the Swiss style, complete with a covered veranda, a main room for housing the brood colonies, and living and sleeping quarters for the mating station manager, was erected in record time. An area of ​​approximately 12,000 m2 was available for setting up the single-comb boxes, as only these were permitted due to better control of drone-free conditions and queen egg-laying.

The Hirschgrund breeding station was opened on May 21, 1939. Read more about this in the chapter on the Hirschgrund breeding station.

However, heavy storm clouds soon gathered over Guido Sklenar's breeding career. He was asked to fully recognize the conformation system, which was incompatible with his principle of "performance first." He explained this in his reply, stating that, based on decades of breeding experience, he would not act against his deepest convictions and that he would not accept responsibility for the transgressions of the offspring of his line, as he was accused of having unreliable breeders among his ranks, which would lead to the disqualification of his line.

And so it came to pass: Strain 47 was, albeit only temporarily, removed from the breeding program. The stumbling block was a slight tinge of brown on the first tergite, which was present in approximately every 50th bee in some lines. Sklenar believed that this trait, which he considered insignificant, could not be bred out. Here, our esteemed old master was mistaken, for his successors—and here, master beekeeper Anton Schleining (current head of the mating station) certainly deserves special recognition—succeeded in breeding a uniform gray color, which would no longer be of decisive importance today.

Also of interest is the documented fact that the same breed inspector who had to evaluate Sklenar's strain at that time awarded Dröhnerich 99 out of 100 possible points at the Hirschgrund mating station in 1946, and even gave the one at the St. Egyden mating station, also provided by Guido Sklenar, the maximum score of 100. The fact that this unfortunate incident went completely unnoticed by the many breeders of the Sklenar bee is demonstrated by the fact that, after this "forced break," there were only 5 recognized Sklenar mating stations in Austria in 1948: 2 for Troisek and none for Peschetz.

1945 was also a fateful year for Guido Sklenar. His house, for whose construction he had saved every penny since his youth, burned to the ground, and Guido Sklenar was literally reduced to beggars overnight. He and his family were left with only the clothes on their backs. Fortunately, the somewhat isolated apiary was spared, so Guido was at least able to continue his breeding work with his own equipment. Two microscopes, typewriters, breeding equipment, and much more were lost forever. A particularly heavy loss for us, his survivors, was the guestbooks and the personal correspondence with all the leading breeders and experts of that era.

However, by 1948 the newly built house, more beautiful and larger than the one that had been destroyed by fire, along with an attached beehive for 100 colonies, was ready for occupancy, and the business could continue in full operation. Also in 1948, on August 15th, the Lower Austrian Beekeeping Association convened a large beekeeping conference in Mistelbach on the occasion of the agricultural and trade exhibition; over 300 beekeepers participated.

During this event, Guido Sklenar was presented with the "Golden Weippl Plaque" by the President of the Austrian Beekeepers' Association, Professor Planckh, in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of queen breeding. Mr. Sklenar is thus the first recipient of the highest award bestowed by the Austrian Beekeepers' Association.

Guido Sklenar was a heavy smoker throughout his life, and the consequences were inevitable. The severe blows of fate he suffered during his lifetime, as well as constant overwork, also took their toll. Knowing his life's work was in good hands—his daughter Hansi had been a lifelong assistant to her father, and his son-in-law, OSR. Dir. Hans Weber, had been the breeding station manager since 1947 and was also active in the breeding operation—Sklenar found it easy to hand over the breeding work to his children. He now only assumes, as he himself writes, "overall supervision" and, despite his advanced age and failing health, spends most of his time at his typewriter.

For decades, he had been writing articles for numerous specialist journals, corresponding with many experts of the time, and answering the many inquiries he received from beekeepers. To give an idea of ​​the sheer volume of correspondence from Guido Sklenar, it should be noted that, according to his postal records, over 5,400 pieces of mail left his house in the busiest year. His guestbook, unfortunately only resumed in 1948, recorded over 600 entries annually.

On May 26, 1953, Guido Sklenar, a member of the Austrian Beekeeping Association, died after a long and serious illness, shortly before his 82nd birthday. He was laid to rest on May 30, 1953, in the municipal cemetery in Mistelbach. A large number of mourners, mainly beekeepers, came to bid farewell to their "Master," as Guido Sklenar was affectionately called by his followers. In his eulogy, Professor Planckh, President of the Austrian Beekeepers' Association, thanked Guido Sklenar for his tireless work for the benefit of beekeepers worldwide.

The numerous letters of condolence and obituaries in various newspapers reveal the great loss suffered by the beekeeping community with Sklenar's death, for never before in the German-speaking world had there been a breeder who commanded such trust and affection. A street in Mistelbach is now named after Sklenar.