I know I'm just small-time... this is my first year grafting. Using freshly hatched larvae, jzbz cups, chinese grafting tool, not priming cells (except for the occasional oops when I missed pulling a larvae out and got a 'tool' full of royal jelly, or screwed up putting it in the cell cup and pulled the larvae back out)...
All done in a 5-frame nuc, fed 1:1 sugar syrup, no protein supplement
Attempt 1 - grafted 28, got 25 (wasn't impressed with royal jelly production though, and cells looked small)
Attempt 2 - grafted 20, currently have 17 or more accepted, with plenty of royal jelly. This is using the same cell starter/finisher. I think the difference is all the capped brood I put in when doing attempt 1 has hatched and reached the ideal age for royal jelly production.
I try to be careful to keep the graft bars covered with a warm wet towel before and after the graft.
I use a magnifying headset... best deal I found was online through Tmart (
http://www.tmart.com/Up-to-10X-Magn...fier-Lens-Visor-with-2-LED-Light_p142335.html)... shipped free to me, no duties/taxes.
I try to get the youngest larvae possible... working the outer ring of brood, on the edge between egg and larvae.
There are a ton of things that can affect acceptance... I'd love to do a couple studies on my own grafting, do a recording of my grafting to note my own comments on each cell as I go (touched the side of the cup, think I pinched the larvae, not sure if it rolled, that one looked perfect, preprimed that cell, larvae looks a little old)... and then check acceptance a few days later. Try to determine what human-influenced factors can affect acceptance. Taking the extra few seconds to redo a graft could mean an accepted queen cell, which in my opinion is more valuable than the time lost redoing it.