to quote Steve Taber you graft a larvae that you cannot see.  I have a room set aside for grafting and I use one of those round lighted magnifying florescent light on a pivot arm.

I started out using one of those 'automatic' grafting needles (there is really nothing automatic about the device) and now exclusively use a Chinese grafting tools... the flexibility of the little plastic shaped part that scoop up the larvae is critically important and often time I have to take a utility knife blade and scrape the plastic piece until it is flexible enough to bend when it hits the bottom of the cell.

if conditions are dry then I take bucket of hot water and splash this on the concrete floor and this adds enough moisture to the space to marginally effect grafting success.

An often overlook detail in all the queen rearing books I have read tells you to feed just a wee bit of syrup 3 to 5 days ahead of grafting to the queen mother hive.  This increase the pool of larval food and makes scooping up the larvae easier and puts just a wee bit more larvae food into the grafted cell.

For most novice collecting a bit of royal jelly ahead of grafting and putting a small quantity on the bottom of the cell cup should increase you grafting success.  It also make removing the larvae from the grafting tool easier.  I did this routinely when I first began rearing queens (about 1984) but now 'dry' graft.

Gene in Central Texas...   

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