this is an old topic, but is worthy for comment on, for anyone who may be experiencing this type of problem with chickens again. I had the same issue with one of my gold laced wyandotte hens. She was walking around as if she looked like a penguin, clearly egg bound. I did some research on how to deal with an egg bound chicken and it is a bit of a convaluted story, but I will tell what I did. Sometimes it is helpful to relax the birds muscles so the egg can pass. I placed the chicken to stand in a container of warm water, so that her bottom was being warmed by the water, I held her there for about 10 minutes and then dried her off with a blowdryer, so she would not chill. She passed the egg the following day, and it was an extremely big egg. This event occurred on our move up to our new home. The bird did not lay an egg in the travelling of 5 hours during the move, and it probably caused her to become, like constipated. You know how that can happen. To this day I don't know if she would have passed the egg all on her own, or if the warm water bath helped, but that is what I did. Just a little bit of my two cents to tell of something that I had happen to one of my hens. If the egg breaks within the chicken, usually it results in death, infection. Have that wonderful day, of love and health. Cindi