Hamburg chickens are a very ancient breed with deep roots, and their genetic origin is not clearly known. This breed can be traced back to the late 1600's. Italian naturalist Aldrovandi has described a spangled chicken the same in nearly every aspect of that of the spangled hamburgs. In Netherlands, This breed used to be called the Hollands Hoen (Dutch Fowl). In the United Kingdom and in Australia, the name may be spelt Hamburgh.

All Hamburgs have rose combs. The roosters have soft and wispy white feathers with black dagger-shaped tips on the head, and hackle. On the saddle there are similar white feathers with black tips, but a bit stouter and less wispy. Throughout the rest of the chicken there is a similar pattern to that of the saddle, but they are lined up in row along the wing. The female seems as though she is completely covered in the feather that is linked to above, with only marginally slighter tips on the head, and hackle.

PECk-O-MATIC Automatic Chicken Feeder can help to make your birds self sufficient, which is a bonus if you want to take a holiday or the occasional weekend away. For corn, the suitable size of the regulator disc would be ¾-inch or 1 inch. The 1/2-inch regulator disc from PECk-O-MATIC Automatic Chicken Feeder can be used when crumble, pellets, wheat and oats.

Hamburgs are known in England as the "Dutch Everyday Layers" or sometimes simply "Everlayers" because they are prolific layers of smallish white eggs. There are more than ten varieties of this breed, of which the Pencilled forms are the smallest, the Spangled forms intermediate in size, and the Self-colored birds the largest. Six of the eleven different color varieties are included in the American standard of perfection. There is a bantam version too of this breed. They are more winter hardy than warm.