The
Hamburg or
Hamburgh in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, is a type of chicken developed in Germany and
HollandRotterdam
The Hague
Haarlem
Dordrecht |} Holland is a name in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often informally used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands...
prior to 1700. It is comparatively rare, with less than 1000 registered in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
each year.
It is a small breed—cocks tend to weigh only 5
poundThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
s and hens about 4 lb (2.25 and 1.75 kg) with slender legs and a neat rose comb. The bird comes in more than ten different varieties, including: Silver-Spangled, Golden-Spangled, Golden-Penciled, Silver-Penciled, White, and Black.
Discussion
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The
Hamburg or
Hamburgh in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, is a type of chicken developed in Germany and
HollandRotterdam
The Hague
Haarlem
Dordrecht |} Holland is a name in common usage given to a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The name 'Holland' is also often informally used to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands...
prior to 1700. It is comparatively rare, with less than 1000 registered in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
each year.
Appearance and behavior
It is a small breed—cocks tend to weigh only 5
poundThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
s and hens about 4 lb (2.25 and 1.75 kg) with slender legs and a neat rose comb. The bird comes in more than ten different varieties, including: Silver-Spangled, Golden-Spangled, Golden-Penciled, Silver-Penciled, White, and Black. Penciled breeds are smallest and self-colored birds are largest. There are also bantam Hamburgs, which weigh about 1.5 pounds . Hamburgs are hardy, active birds who are capable of flight and often jumpy around humans.
Eggs
Hamburgs mature quickly and are considered good egg producers. Their eggs are rather small with white, glossy shells.
Famous Hamburgs
Perhaps the most famous devotee of the Hamburg chicken was
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
, author of the
OzThe Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. Oz was originally created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books...
books. He began a monthly trade journal in 1880 and in 1886, published his first and only book on the subject,
The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs.
In Baum's third Oz book,
Ozma of OzOzma of Oz, published on July 29, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books...
, he introduces
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
's chicken,
BillinaBillina is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.She is a yellow hen tossed overboard in a storm with Dorothy Gale in the novel Ozma of Oz, the third Oz book, and a sequel to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. He must have drawn on his experience in breeding Hamburgs when creating her character, as she is appropriately spirited and active.
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