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Embden Geese

Embden Geese


Appearance: This is the tallest goose with a massive and long body, long swan neck, with the double lobes not touching the ground. The colour of the plumage is completely white (some grey feathers are admitted in young ones / first year often under the wing ); Bright orange bill with flesh coloured bean ; and legs; clear blue eyes, ( if crossed for the Toulouse/Embden meat birds eye colour will alter so check).The normally reach over a metre in height.

Meat Production: The true Embden Goose suffers like the Aylesbury in that most of the public think all white geese are Embden's whereas few of them are actually pure bred stock. The height of this breed will normally be the giveaway as they are considerably taller than their cross bred cousins.


Names.The Embden Goose breed is also known as the Bremen and although a German name most historical sources place this as a northern Dutch breed that also migrated throughout Europe to Italy where it was imported from to cross with our native white breeds. Also known as L'oie d'Emden in France/Belgium
Country Of Origin;........ Although a German name most historical sources place this as a northern Dutch breed that also migrated throughout Europe to Italy from where it was imported from to cross with our native white breeds.
Carriage;
Purpose;.........Eggs.....Meat...Broody
Egg Colour ..................... eggs white / egg weight 170g
Egg Numbers............10 / 20
Breed Defects. . . . .plumage other than white; Uneven lobes; Keel;
Incubation: . . . . . .28 -34 days.
Breed Hints....****.The tallest breed if the bird is short and dumpy it is NOT an Embden
Weights; Gander, 26 pound mature Goose, 20 pounds mature gander 11 to 12 kg / goose of 10 to 11 kg;
Breed Tip  Kept as pair or flock.... can be over protective of their 'wives & young' in spring so not a beginners breed. Can also be short fused with small dogs ie not advisable for dog keepers unless you have a problem. . .  .

Info**Used historically as a meat cross either with the utility Toulouse ( darker drier meat) or another large framed breed..... can run to fat so used to be killed off at Michlemas.




Showing lobes in standard cage to show size











Breed History; . . . The Emden Goose is a breed of domestic goose. The origins of this breed are thought to be from the North Sea region, in the Netherlands and Germany. The  author Lewis Wright  was of the opinion that they originated from the town of Emden in Lower Saxony, Germany, although Edward Brown in his 1906 Races of Domestic Poultry believed that the breed was created by crossing the German White with the English White and then, by a process of careful selections, creating the goose as it is today.

In America often referred to a Bremen Geese . This makes it obvious why also the address in Emden :- "Ten Hills Farm, near Boston, Mass., Dec. 12th, 1850. J. J. KERR, M. D. :. . .Dear Sir, My father Col. Samuel Jaques has had intimation from his friend, Dr. Eben Wight, of Boston, that you were about to publish a work on the subject of Domestic Fowls, Birds, &c., and that you would be pleased to receive from my father some information relative to his Bremen Geese a name they have received in consequence of their having come from that place originally. I have my father's notes to guide me in making the following statements, as well as his approbation that you should be furnished with them. In the winter of 1820, a gentleman, a stranger, made a brief call at my father's house; and, in course of conversation, casually mentioned, that, during his travels in the interior of Germany, he had noticed a pure white breed of Geese, of unusual size, whose weight, he supposed, would not fall much short of twenty-five pounds each, providing they were well fed and managed. At that period, a friend of my father's the late Eben Rollins, Esq., of Boston kept a correspondence with the house of Dallias & Co., in Bremen, and at his request, Mr. Rollins ordered, through that firm, and on my father's account, two danders and four Geese, of the breed mentioned by the stranger gentleman. The Geese arrived to order in Boston, in the month of October, 1821; and I append a copy of "Directions relative to the Geese from Bremen," given to the captain of the ship in which they arrived. I hold the original in my possession ; and transcribe it verb,
et lit. : "Emden, 17 th August, 1821. "The captain who is to take over these six Geese will find the cages a little large; however, it is necessary that their lodgings be sufficient wide, if they shall arrive sound in America. Two Geese which were sent to Bremen last year in a small box, died on their arrival there; being water-birds, they want a much more careful management than Fowls; they ought to have constantly fresh water in abundance; a quantity of good sand and muscle scells, (shells,) serving for their digestion, must be put into their feed-box ; there ought to be always sand and straw below in their cage for litter; also above the cage, as the birds perish otherwise by insects. The Geese must be feeded ; they used to pick the straw from above down to the feet. The Geese must be feeded with good clean oats,
and sometimes with cabbage leaves/' Ever since my father imported the Bremen Geese, he has  kept them pure, and bred them so to a feather no single instance having occurred in which the slightest deterioration of character could be observed. Invariably the produce has been of the purest white the bill, legs, and feet, of a beautiful yellow. No solitary mark or spot has crept out on the plumage of any one specimen, to shame the true distinction they deserve of being a pure breed : like, with them, always has produced like.The original stock has never been out of my father's possession ; nor has he ever crossed it with any other kind, since H was imported in 1821. I find, by reference to my father's notes, that, in 1826, and in order to mark his property indelibly, he took one of his favourite imported Geese, and, with the instrument used for cutting gun-waddings, made a hole through the web of the left foot. This was done on the 26th June : and now, in 1850, the same Goose, with the perforation in her foot, is running about his poultry-yard, in as fine health and vigour as any of her progeny. She has never failed to lay from twelve to sixteen Eggs every year, for the last twenty-seven years, and has always been an excellent breeder and nurse, as has all of the stock and offspring connected with her. I had the curiosity to weigh one of her brood of 1849, when nine months old exactly, and his weight, in feather, sent up 22 Ibs. in the opposite scale. This hugeous Anser has been preferred to breed from, the coming season.

 From Burnhams book 1877 "The name Embden is that of a town in Holland, where they first came from—but Col. Jaques was never inclined to multiply names, unnecessarily ; and as he got his original stock of these monster white birds from Bremen direct, he called them Bremen Geese."

Standards in 1866 from Saunders hardly altered "Bremem' or Embden Geese have blossom-white plumage; bills, flesh color ; legs and feet, orange. These birds
attain great weights, averaging from 45 to 50 lbs. per pair, and are valuable on account of the superior quality and color of the down, but to look well they must have access to a pond. The quiet domestic character of the Bremen geese causes them to lay on flesh rapidly,. . . ."

Wright also says  from 1870's editions onwards :-" It is impossible to state when Embden geese were first imported into England. In the beginning of the last century a great deal of poultry was reared in Nesserland, close to Embden, and as there was a brisk trade in fowls between England and Embden, it is probablethat geese were also imported. Mowbray remarks, 'At present (1815) Embden geese are in the highest esteem,' but respecting their table qualities he adds, ' I am unable to say, having yet had no experience in this variety.' From this latter remark it might be inferred that this variety was a somewhat new addition to English geese. English writers about fifty years ago say these geese had been imported ' some time ago' from Embden in Hanover, and also from Holland, and at the time they wrote birds were still being largely imported. They state that Embdens differed in no way from our white geese in England ' except from their great size and uniform clear white plumage.'




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