all our chickens are just a few weeks old at the moment actually mate...we have salmon faverolles ( roo and 4 pullets), buff orps, silver spangled hamburgs ( roo + 3 pullets), RIR, barred rock crosses, and white cochins. My son really wants to try and hatch eggs but he likes the black, blue and white silkies the best even though I like the looks of the araucanas. I guess the sensible thing for me to do is to get some silkies ( eggs) and see how we do hatching them as you suggested. If we managed to get a real good hatch rate then maybe next time i will try the araucanas. I really like the looks of them but after listening to you and others it seems like they really are not the first eggs to try and hatch. Are you likely to have araucana eggs again in the future?
thanks and sorry for all the trouble.
aran