Standard Varieties of Chickens:

Hamburgs

Hamburgs (figs. 29 and 30) are in the front ranks of egg producers and are in general appearance much like Leghorns. There are six varieties of Hamburgs: The Golden-spangled, Silver-spangled, Golden-penciled, Silver-penciled, Black, and White. They are all very pretty birds and seldom fail to prove attractive and profitable to the average breeder and fancier. Hamburgs are economical fowls to keep; besides being light eaters and great foragers, they are prolific layers and nonsitters. The only thing against them is the smallness of their eggs. They lay a pretty, white-shelled egg, but smaller in size than those of the Leghorn. There are some which lay larger eggs than others, and by careful selection from year to year of the birds which lay the largest eggs this defect may be remedied and the size of eggs improved.

The Silver-spangled Hamburg is, perhaps, the most beautiful as well as the most popular variety of the Hamburgs. Their proud carriage, royal decoration, and graceful and symmetrical forms command attention whenever seen. Breeders of Hamburgs universally adopt the following as a standard for the breed: Comb square at front, tapering nicely into a long spike, full of points by no means plain, firmly and evenly set on the head; face, red; earlobes, moderate size, round as possible, and clear white; legs, leaden blue; carriage, graceful; plumage, very profuse. Color - Cocks, Silver-spangled: Clear, silvery-white ground, every feather tipped or spangled, the breast as bold as possible but showing the spangle, the bars of the wing regular and bold; neck, back, and saddle nicely tipped; how well marked (by no means cloudy, brown or brassy); back as green as possible. Golden-spangled: Color very black and rich, the back glossy green; the neck, back, and saddle nicely striped; bow of wing ell marked. Hens, Silver-spangled: The white clear and silvery; the spangles large, green as possible, distinct and clear. Golden-spangled: Ground, rich; clear spangles large and distinct.

The feather markings of the penciled varieties differ greatly from those of the spangled; the latter being commonly called "moon-eyed" from the round or oval appearance of the spangles, while the markings of the penciled varieties are in parallel bars of reddish bay or black, or clear silvery white and black, as the case may be. White and Black Hamburgs are solid white or solid black in plumage.

No standard weight is given for Hamburgs.

FOR FURTHER READING...

The first three images below come from the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Science's Poultry Breeds pages. The fourth and fifth images are from the FeatherSite, "an on-line zoological garden of domestic poultry". The Hamburgs page at Oklahoma and the Hamburgs page at FeatherSite contain further information about this breed's history and more images of these fowl. Clicking on each image takes you to the page specifically about that particular variety.

Image Credits (from left to right): Copyright © 1996, Oklahoma State University Board of Regents; Copyright © 1996, Oklahoma State University Board of Regents; Copyright © 1996, Oklahoma State University Board of Regents; Courtesy of Barry Koffler; Courtesy of Barry Koffler

Please note: These links point to pages that are being served off of the Oklahoma State University's web server and off the cyborganic.net web server, which are not part of the Chickscope project. Because of this, the pages may be missing or corrupted, and control of this is generally out of the hands of the Chickscope development team.

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