[chookaburra]

      How do I know if my chookie is egg bound please    :blink:   They don't seem to like using their perches so how do I go about encouraging them to use them?

[LittleRedHen]

This time of year, alot of hens stop laying just because it is dark for a long period of time everyday.  So your hens might not be egg bound.  But if they are, I think a good gentle feel around underneath her will confirm it.  I'm no expert so I would wait for an answer from one of the moderators to make sure! 

[Foxy]

     How do I know if my chookie is egg bound please    :blink:   They don't seem to like using their perches so how do I go about encouraging them to use them?

Is there any reason you think they may be eggbound?

[chookaburra]

I'm very, very new at this, and a neighbour told me that if the chooks didn't use their roosting perch and only used their nest boxes to sleep in they would become egg bound - they are still very young, but their combs and dangly bits are getting redder daily, so I thought I had better ask folk who were experts rather than the over helpful, non-chookie owners, that I currently have!  Thank you for being so patient in answering my questions.

     How do I know if my chookie is egg bound please    :blink:   They don't seem to like using their perches so how do I go about encouraging them to use them?

Is there any reason you think they may be eggbound?

[Foxy]

Ahhh I see!
Youngsters take a while to get the hang of perchng, and for a whilte will prefer to squash in nestboxes or huddle together on the henhouse floor. You can get them used to perching by late evening manually popping them onto the perches till they get used to it.
With an eggbound hen it is fairly obvious that somethings wrong. The look listless, lethargic with prolonged frequent visits to the nestbox. Odd "waddling" walk. With a very careful feel of the abdomen you can usually detect a firm egg-shaped bulge. Egg-binding usually occurs with young hens coming into lay -this is the time where a good diet is essential plus adlib access to good quality oyster shell as young pullets need to build up calcium to develop good quality eggshell development.
Older hens, and exbatts coming to the end of their laying can also suffer egg-binding problems this is usually due to an inabilty to process essential minerals though.
Finally there is no reason why roosting in the nestbox will cause egg-binding

[Jeanette]

My girls sleep in the nest box and they have never been egg bound. Touch wood

[chooksbury]

   Ah chookaburra my much loved partner in crime (and bezzy friend from "The Forest")  so good to see you on here at last.  Hope your girls are making themselves more comfy.  They'll find perching easier now they got a bit more room.  However, it will take time and lots of patience apparently. 

There's plenty of oyster shell in that grit we gave you .. but I don't think Frigg and Freya are bound .. they're lively and happy (well apart from when Frigg was forcibly ejected from her old domicile to the new     ) with no listless or lethargic behaviour.  The people on here are a wealth of information though.  Those useful poultry stickies make what should be compulsory reading for us newbies.  There IS an awful lot of talk about pooh on here though