Dee Lusby

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Dee Lusby is considered by many to be the "grandmother" of treatment-free beekeeping. She keeps her bees in the remote desert rangeland of southern Arizona on vast ranches and wildlife refuges. Dee has contributed tirelessly to the treatment-free beekeeping community through her founding and moderating an online discussion group based around treatment-free beekeeping that was maintained for decades.

In 2008 Dee hosted the first treatment-free beekeeping conference in the U.S. near Tucson, Arizona. We attended that conference, spent a few days with Dee and her bees post-conference, and were so inspired that we returned two months later for a couple of weeks. It was incredible to work with Dee and her bees, to see hundreds of colonies that were surviving without chemical treatments, and to taste the amazing varieties of honey that the high desert plants produce. It was on this trip that the vision that became Golden Rule Honey was born and Dee became our first honey supplier.

Dee's bees gather nectar from an array of wild desert plants and are able to survive the harsh conditions by sharing watering tanks with free-range cattle when natural water sources are dry. Her honeys have a slightly caramel flavor and crunchy texture.