On a vacant lot next door to the Insite supervised drug injection facility in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside, a busy little beehive is teaching people about hope and redemption and erasing long-held misconceptions.

For Jim McLeod, at 36 still battling issues with drug addiction, caring for the hive of honey-producing bees has taught him patience and how to look beyond the day-to-day stresses of trying to survive in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood.

For Julia Common, once a privileged private school community coordinator and the sponsor of the hive, putting bees into the lot — the site of the Hastings Folk Garden food garden — has erased a fear of associating with people in the Downtown Eastside.

And for Common’s daughter Sarah, who works for the Portland Hotel Society, it has strengthened her bonds with her mother and revealed unexpected strengths among the people she assists.

“I’ve seen what the bees do for people. I’ve seen it actually help them, give them a purpose,” Julia said Thursday.

Tucked up against a brick wall in the middle of the garden at 177 East Hastings, the colony is bursting with spring activity as worker bees fly out and return loaded with pollen and nectar from myriad rooftop gardens, weedy boulevards and forage along edges of the nearby port lands. The bees spiral up and down in tight circles to get into the hive, which is housed behind a square screen fence.

As he adjusted a white veil that screens his head from the bees as he works around them, McLeod said he’s learned as much about himself as he has about the bees. “I still have some drug issues myself,” he said. “I think it is very therapeutic and rewarding, especially when you get the honey. You have to keep control of yourself and work slowly and carefully or you’ll get stung. You can’t relapse and work around them.”

Last fall the hive produced 145 pounds of honey, an astounding bounty considering the average Metro Vancouver beehive produces less than 80 pounds. Volunteers working with the Commons extracted two varieties, one a dark and aromatic honey and the other a golden yellow mixture. Branded “Downtown Eastside Honey,” the supply quickly sold out through a local store.

That first project was such a success that Julia, 59, formed the non-profit society Hives for Humanity with her savings. Julia, a longtime hobbyist beekeeper, is now placing dozens of hives on rooftop gardens and in backyards and food garden plots along the East Hastings corridor, all with the aim of teaching local residents how to keep bees. This year she’s already installed 10 hives and has ordered another 50, making her the largest social enterprise beekeeper in Vancouver. So far she has put in $60,000 of her own savings but is hoping to find a benefactor or sponsor who can help underwrite the costs.

All of the hives are now owned by societies Julia works with, including the Portland, the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, Raincity Housing and a small independent school. She provides the equipment and bees at cost, and those who can pay, do. She is also working to establish a “honey house” where the societies can all extract and process their product.