Hi there keepers, I have noticed in the search engine for this site, that quite a few people type in, ‘ How can you tell if a chicken is eggbound? ‘, or simular. I can only tell you how I detected ours were.
The first sign and posssibly the most obvious, was that the affected hen stopped laying eggs, now we only have 6 hens now, so I can individually recognise each hens egg, which makes it easier to know who has stopped laying.
The second behavoiur I noticed was that, the affected hen seemed to be constantly pushing down her rear, infact the whole tail of the bird was pointing at the ground, rather than the healthy tail feathers up position, On closer inspection of the vent, ( the hole both eggs and waste appear from), it was constantly being pushed by the hen, in an effort to free the egg, so the vent is visably being pushed out and then going back in, every few seconds. In some cases there will be alot of white discharge, this is because the solids are stuck behind the egg, and only the fluids can get passed, caution when examining vent, see Egg Bound Chicken Treatment for details.
In general the affected hen will appear down, not moving around much, bum down, off their food, with a look of constipation. Good luck.