[HesterF]

Again no idea whether this applies to Araucanas but in Orps, lavender is a pure lightish grey colour whereas blue have a pencilling/lacing effect around the edges of the feathers and tend to be darker. The cockerels are easier to tell because the blues have a darker head/neck feathers whereas lavender are one shade all over. But I hatched lavender and blue chicks at the same time and it was months before I was sure which was which (not helped by the blue pen being one to potentially produce all three colours so I was expecting splash in there too).

Just had a quick google and it looks like Araucanas are the same. From the breed club website:

http://www.araucana.org.uk/photos.html

Lavender top, blue bottom.

[Stereo]

It does look tricky with the hens. I've got lavender hens and a cockerel and a blue cockerel and with the boys, it's easy to see the difference. The wet slate description is very accurate. I think I might try to get some blue hens which should give a range of offspring. I can then maybe start a black line as well if I can hatch enough hens.