Hamburg chicken

The history and origins of the Hamburgh are not known.^[4]: 127 The gold-pencilled and silver-pencilled colour varieties appear to be of Dutch origin, and show some similarity to the Assendelfter.^[9]: 72 Other varieties appear to have developed in the United Kingdom, particularly in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire.^[9]: 72

The Hamburg is a small or medium-sized breed. For most colour varieties, cocks weigh 2–2.5 kg and hens about 1.6–1.8 kg^[3] or 1.5–2 kg;^[10] weights for the pencilled varieties are lower, at about 1.5–1.7 kg and 1.2–1.4 kg respectively.^[3]. Weights for bantams are roughly 700–1000 g for cocks and 600–800 g for hens.^{[4]: 131 [11]}

The standard ring sizes are 16 mm for cocks and 15 mm for hens, but for the pencilled variants are 15 mm and 13 mm respectively.^[3]

Five different colour varieties are recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain: silver-spangled, gold-spangled, silver-pencilled, gold-pencilled and black.^[4]: 128 The same five are included in the American Standard of Perfection, with the addition of the white.^[5] The Entente Européenne recognises these six and also the blue;^[6] a further five are listed but not recognised: citron-pencilled, gold-white-pencilled, gold-blue-pencilled, cuckoo and red.^[6]

The Hamburgh is bred principally for exhibition. Hens lay approximately 120 or 170 white eggs per year, with an average weight of some 50 or 56 g;^{[3]: 39 [10]} bantam hens lay some 130 or 140 eggs weighing about 30 or 35 g.^{[3][11]: 39}