A pictorial representation on how to convert from a Langstroth system of beekeeping to the JHH system of beekeeping.

Please click on the thumbnailed images for the full screen photo.
Photo1: A typical Langstroth brood. The outer 2 frames on either side ( frames 1,2,9and 10 counting from the left) are often exhausted combs used by the bees to evaporate nectar. These are useless as brood frames and need to be removed. Photo 3: This shows a typically exhausted brood frame. Note the dark colour of the comb. This is caused for two reasons. Firstly by the cleaner bees lining the base of each cell with a small amount of propolis, which is dark, and secondly from the crysalisis left behind by the hatching bees.
Photo 4: The inspection continues removing all the exhausted comb. A hive tool is often required to prise the frames apart due to the bees attaching frames together with "bur comb" or cementing the frames to the bottom with propolis.
Photo 2: The exhausted frames are removed first. In this case frame number 10. This gives the beekeeper a space to work in and the other frames are easier to remove using a hive tool to break any propolis.
Photo 5: This shows the first frame of brood found. in this hive.It was the Fourth frame which had been removed, 3 having already been exhausted. The brood can be seen on the bottom left corner of the frame, with bee bread (stored pollen) in a crescent shape around the brood, with honey stored on the top right of the frame.
Photo 6: The frame with brood from photo 5 is moved to the side of the hive. A Jackson Horizontal Frame with a wax starter strip is slipped down next to the brood. The bees will be encouraged to build comb on this frame and the queen will start laying. This gives the bees more space for brood rearing.
Photo7: Frames with brood on them are then moved up against this "empty" JHH frame. This gives a small cavity in the middle of the brood, encouraging the bees to build new comb in the middle, as it is in nature. Photo 8: This shows the position of the 3 new JHH frames in the brood chamber of a Langstroth hive. To summarise, the frame on the extreme right has a little brood, then comes the first JHH frame with a wax starter. The rest of the brood (2) already laid and then two new JHH frames. Thus the bees have space to build in the middle of the brood area, and expand outwards.

Summary

In this collage of photos the step wise method of placing JHH frames into Langstroth system is shown. What is important to show is how the brood chamber (that section in the Langstroth hive that the queen is using) is maintained, except for one new frame in the middle of it. If too many frames are placed between the brood frames and the brood chamber split too far apart, the bees battle to maintain the brood temperature and the swarm is compromised, and may abscond. The method we have applied here alows the bees to build wax in the new frames (especially in the central frame placed in their brood chamber) and induces the queen to start laying eggs and for the bees to start rearing brood.

After a period of 1 week the colony is opened and inspected, the outer 4 frames on the left of the chamber are inspected and if no brood is found, can be removed and replaced with JHH frames. If the colony is brooding on the JHH frames already (normally after a period of 1week or so) the JHH frames are removed and placed in a full JHH. The bees are shaken into the JHH and the colony is easily transferred to the new hive with minimal risk of absconding as they already have three frames of brood, which have been hived across. Alternatively the beekeeper can place more JHH frames in the chamber and wait till all 10 frames have brood production on them before transfering the frames to the front portion of a new JHH..