[Pollinator] Fwd: A Beekeeper's Dream: From Iran to Missouri

Thu Aug 27 11:16:17 PDT 2015

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From: USDA NRCS Missouri <USDA-NRCS at public.govdelivery.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 10:12 AM
Subject: A Beekeeper's Dream: From Iran to Missouri
To: bernhap2 at slu.edu

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A Beekeeper's Dream: From Iran to Missouri

[image: David Panahi Checks His Hives]

The closing days of World War II brought sleepless nights to David Panahi,
then a four-year old Iranian boy living in what is now Azerbaijan near the
border of Russia.  His father away with the Army, Panahi remembers
countless nights lying alone on the floor, crying himself to sleep while
the sound of bombs exploding filled the air.

During the few peaceful daylight hours, Panahi and his older brother
crossed cautiously to the countryside and watched Russian farmers tend to
their beehives.

“Watching those beekeepers collect honey, I said right then-and-there,
‘God, I’d really like to do that one day.’” Panahi said.  “God is good and
he had a plan.  I just didn’t realize it was going to take 65 years to get
to the point where I would be in a position to have hives,” Panahi laughed.

Panahi left Iran in 1977, two years before the Iranian revolution which
sent the Shah into exile and left Ayatollah Khomeini at the helm of the
country.

“If we had stayed in Iran, I’m fairly certain we would have been killed
because of our affiliation with the Iranian Army,” Panahi said.

 Making the decision to move to America based on a picture of a palm tree
that graced the cover of a magazine his Dad had shown him years earlier,
Panahi and his two children packed up and left to begin new lives in the
United States.

With stops in New York, Hawaii and a 37-year stay in California, Panahi and
his wife Paula eventually found their way in 2006 to a picturesque acreage
in Fair Grove, Missouri, and immediately began making plans for a farm.

“Within our first week here we bought horses, lambs, goats and geese,”
Panahi said.  “This place was a zoo.”

It wasn’t long after settling in at the Dallas County farm that Panahi
connected with NRCS Resource Conservationist Myron Hartzell.  Panahi needed
a water source and Hartzell was happy to create a plan that included both a
watering and rotational grazing system for his horses.  It was around this
time that Panahi returned to the plan he envisioned nearly seven decades
earlier on the Russian border of Iran.  He invested in his first three
Italian beehives.

During a 2007 field visit with Hartzell, it came to light that Panahi now
needed shade and winter protection for his new hive area and more blooming
plants for pollinator habitat.  After installing pasture fencing on his
own, Panahi discovered that livestock, horses and goats were no longer the
area he wanted to focus on.

Dedicating full energy to his beehives, Panahi increased to 10 hives in
2008, and 15 hives in 2009.  Currently, Panahi has more than 100 Italian
and Russian and Carniolan beehives scattered around his property and the
properties of friends and acquaintances within a 90-mile radius.

“I make a visit to each of my hives once a week, at least three times a
month,” Panahi said.

Routinely checking the queen, ensuring that the hives have enough space to
spread out and feeding the bees with supplemental sugar water, Panahi’s
pollinators produce an average of two tons of honey each year.  However,
due to the large amount of rainfall this year, Panahi expects less
production since rain washes away pollen from the flowering blooms.

With assistance from NRCS’ Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Panahi’s pollinators are
surrounded by fields of wildflowers, shrubs, red maples and fruit trees
including pears, peaches, apples and even heat-loving figs.  The native
plants, Witchazel, Aromatic Asters and Goldenrod, were established with
assistance from NRCS and designed to have continuous bloom periods
throughout the growing season that enhance honey production and pollination
activity.

“My neighbor told me there was no way that I would be able to get a fruit
tree to grow in this part of Missouri,” Panahi said.  “But the bees have
helped produce some of the sweetest, juiciest fruit you can imagine.  There
is a good cross benefit between the pollinator crops and honey.”

NRCS Resource Conservationist Adam Coulter has worked extensively with
Panahi over the past few years and now hosts 10the Pollinators of Panahi’s
hives on his own pollinator-friendly property.

“David is doing a great job building relationships in the community,”
Coulter said.  “He’s helping spread the word about the advantages of not
only pollinator habitat but of NRCS assistance.  His involvement in
numerous local and state-level organizations is making people realize that
NRCS is more than just an agency to help with terraces and livestock.”

Panahi sells his honey locally at the annual Fair Grove festival and has a
shop on his property that runs on the honor system.  His name and
reputation for good, quality products that include honey, hives, queens and
bee boxes, is extending his reach even further.

“I’m doing my best, as far as I know,” Panahi said.  “I’ve learned a lot
over the past few years.  I attend classes and seminars, I’m a member of
the Ozark and Missouri Beekeeping Associations and serve as a mentor to
others beekeepers.  I’m thankful for the assistance that NRCS has provided
me.  My gardens, fruit trees, wildflowers and trees have all been
significantly enhanced by the bees and NRCS helped put that pollinator
habitat in the ground.”

View the story and additional photographs on the Missouri NRCS Website
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