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Embden geese are the classic big white farm goose, tall and heavy with bright orange bills and blue eyes. They’re the goose most commercial farms raise for meat, and on a small homestead, a hand-raised Embden makes a sweet, snuggly pet.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Homestead
- What Are Embden Geese?
- Embden Goose Characteristics
- Embden Goose Breed Standard
- Temperament
- Hardiness
- Egg Production
- Raising Embden Geese for Meat
- Broodiness
- Grazing and Weeding
- Pros and Cons of White Embden Geese
- Tips for Raising Embden Geese
- White Embden Geese FAQs
- More Goose Breed Guides
- Raising Geese
We have three Embdens in our little mixed flock here in Vermont. They’re big, white, and easygoing, and they spend their days foraging in the grass with the rest of the flock.
Embdens are one of the oldest goose breeds around, and they’ve been in the American Standard of Perfection since 1874.
Today, Metzer Farms calls them the most common goose used for commercial meat, thanks to their fast growth, large size, and all-white feathers. Those same traits make them a good fit for a family that wants a goose or two for the table.
If you’re new to geese, start with my beginner’s guide to raising geese, or compare the whole list of goose breeds. The Toulouse goose is the other big meat breed, and breeders often cross the two. My daughter has always wanted a lacy-looking Sebastopol goose, too.
Notes from My Homestead
Our Embdens are my daughter’s geese, through and through. She’s been their mama since they were tiny, taking them out to graze every day and into the pond for a swim, and one of them was a lap goose by 10 weeks old.
Our weeder geese hang out with me in the garden, too. They help with the grass, and they still come in for snuggles when my hands are muddy from weeding.
What Are Embden Geese?
Embdens come from northern Germany, and they take their name from the town of Emden. A few early poultry writers thought they were Dutch, but the German origin is the one that stuck.
They reached the United States in 1821, where people first called them Bremens. The breed went into the American Standard of Perfection in 1874, in the heavy class.
You’ll see the name spelled Emden or Embden, and hatcheries often sell them as White Embdens. It’s all the same goose.
Embden Goose Characteristics
Embdens are one of the biggest goose breeds you can raise. Show breeders select for size, and the American standard calls for a mature gander of 26 pounds.
The hatchery birds most of us raise are smaller. Cackle Hatchery lists mature ganders at about 20 pounds and geese at 15 to 16.
- Breed type: Meat goose, also kept for eggs, weeding, and as pets
- Weight: Hatchery ganders about 20 pounds, and geese 15 to 16
- Temperament: Calm, with protective ganders in nesting season
- Noise: Generally quiet for a goose
Like every goose, they save their laying for spring.
- Eggs: About 10 to 45 extra-large white eggs a year, depending on the strain
- Broodiness: Good sitters, and often good mothers
- Eye color: Blue
- Gosling sexing: Females usually have darker gray down at hatch
Embden Goose Breed Standard
Adult Embdens are pure white, with orange bills, orange legs and feet, and blue eyes. A young goose in her first year can have a few gray feathers on her back or rump, and those usually disappear as she matures.
They’re tall birds with long, slender necks. The head is oval, with no knob on the forehead like you’d see on an African or Chinese goose.
Ganders and geese look alike apart from size. Metzer Farms describes the ganders as more pompous in their carriage, with shriller voices.
Temperament
Embdens are generally calm, especially when you raise them by hand. Ours are my daughter’s pets, and she snuggles them while they forage in the grass.
Ganders change in spring. They can get aggressive when they’re guarding a sitting goose or goslings, so give a nesting pair some room. Spring behavior is one of the {I(‘getting-started-with-geese’, ‘things to know before getting geese’)}.
Embdens do well in a calm, docile flock. One year we had an aggressive Toulouse gander, and he attacked our Embden females. We work to keep a gentle, kid-friendly flock, so he didn’t stay long.
The catch is a rough mixed flock. Embdens can be too docile for it, and pushier breeds can beat up a goose this gentle.
University of Kentucky Extension sees it the other way and says Embdens can bully gentler breeds. Either way, watch how everyone gets along when you mix breeds.
Hardiness
Like most geese, Embdens handle cold well. They want to be outside during the day even in a hard winter, and all they really need is a dry shelter out of the wind.
Winter water takes some thought. Keep the waterer small and hard to tip, because a goose will try to climb in and bathe, then freeze her feet to the ice.
A goose this size needs a way to cool off in summer, so give them shade and a kiddie pool or stock tank deep enough to dunk their heads and splash.
Egg Production
Embdens lay in spring, like every goose. University of Kentucky Extension puts them at 10 to 30 eggs a season, and Cackle Hatchery’s strain lays 35 to 45.
Metzer Farms says their Embdens lay the biggest eggs of any breed they raise, which is why egg decorators like them. Cackle Hatchery rates them extra large to 2XL.
In the kitchen, use them like any goose egg. The yolk is big and rich and the white is thin, so they’re great for custard and fresh pasta and not so great for meringue. Here’s more on how goose eggs differ from chicken eggs, plus a long list of goose egg recipes.
If they’re laying faster than you can use them, here are ways to preserve eggs for later in the year.
Raising Embden Geese for Meat
Embdens grow fast and get big, which is why so many commercial goose farms raise them. Their white feathers also leave a clean-looking carcass.
Breeders also cross them with Toulouse and other large geese to make commercial meat hybrids. University of Kentucky Extension says a 20-pound live goose dresses out to about 16 pounds.
Goose meat is dark and rich, and to me it tastes more like beef than chicken. When you’re ready to cook one, here’s how to roast a goose, and leftover goose recipes for the days after.
Every goose gives you a good amount of fat, too. Rendering goose fat is worth the time, and you can can goose meat if you have more than the freezer can hold.
Broodiness
Embdens are good sitters, and they often go broody. University of Kentucky Extension says they make better mothers than Toulouse, even though they lay fewer eggs.
Give a broody goose a big, quiet nest on the floor of her shelter. Geese don’t roost, and they can’t reach a raised chicken nest box.
If you’d rather use an incubator, goose eggs need more moisture than chicken eggs, and the routine is different from hatching chicken eggs. Storey’s Guide to Raising Poultry covers geese along with chickens, ducks, and turkeys.
Grazing and Weeding
Embdens are good foragers, and Oklahoma State’s breed guide calls them great weeders. University of Kentucky Extension says geese spend seven to eight hours a day eating, so a few Embdens can keep a lot of grass in check.
In the growing season, grass, clover, and weeds cover much of their diet. We also start trays of microgreens for our geese every week.
They’re heavy birds, though, and they’ll trample young seedlings. Let them work the pasture and the lawn weeds, and keep them out of new garden beds.
Pros and Cons of White Embden Geese
Embdens make a good meat goose, and they make good pets when you raise them by hand. Their size cuts both ways.
Pros:
- Fast-growing and heavy for the table
- Calm and friendly when they’re hand-raised
- Good grazers that cut the feed bill in summer
- Good sitters that will raise their own goslings
Cons:
- Big birds that take some strength to handle
- Not a good fit for a very small backyard
- Ganders can get aggressive in nesting season
- Pushier breeds can bully them in a mixed flock
- Fewer eggs than lighter breeds like Chinese geese
Tips for Raising Embden Geese
Sex them at hatch if you can. Female Embden goslings usually have darker gray down than the males, according to University of Kentucky Extension. It isn’t foolproof, but it helps when you’re trying to keep the gander count down.
Watch the feed with fast growers. Tufts University’s vet school links angel wing, where the flight feathers twist out from the body, to a diet too high in carbohydrates and protein. Keep goslings on a balanced waterfowl feed with plenty of greens, and skip the bread.
Build fencing for weight, not flight. An Embden is too heavy to fly much, but it’s plenty strong enough to shove through a weak spot in the fence. Lock them in at night, too, since geese have very poor night vision.
White Embden Geese FAQs
Here are the questions that come up most with Embdens, from size to sexing goslings.
The American show standard calls for a mature gander of 26 pounds. Most hatchery Embdens are smaller, with ganders around 20 pounds and geese around 15 or 16.
Expect anywhere from 10 to 45 extra-large white eggs a year, depending on the strain. They lay in spring, like every other goose breed.
Most are calm, especially if you raise them by hand. Ganders can get aggressive while they’re guarding a nest or goslings, so give a nesting pair some room in spring. In a rough mixed flock, pushier geese can pick on a gentle Embden.
At hatch, female Embden goslings usually have darker gray down than males. As adults, ganders are bigger and stand taller, and their voices are shriller.
Not really. Adult Embdens are too heavy to fly well, and domestic geese usually only take off when something startles them. Even then, they generally make it 30 feet or so.
More Goose Breed Guides
A few more breeds to consider for your flock.
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