what contributes the most to egg binding?
Her diet should be OK. She eats leafy greens and mineral rock. Is it OK to let her fly or should I cage her?

The pearl girl may have bruised her beak. There are blood vessels in the beak, and it can be bruised if the bird crashes into something. Beak bruises don't disappear quickly the way that bruises on the skin do, but the mark will go away eventually. As the beak grows the mark will move toward the tip of the beak and then it will disappear completely.

Babies should be completely weaned before you sell them. People usually prefer for babies to be as young as possible, but people will still be willing to buy them when they're a few months older.

It sounds like the father is plucking feathers from the chicks. He might be annoyed with them and is trying to make them leave him alone. Or maybe he's just an overpreener. Does he ever pluck feathers from the hen? Some males pluck their mate.

Diet problems are the main cause of egg binding. Calcium deficiency is a big problem, and vitamin D is also necessary for calcium absorption. Vitamin D is hard to get in the diet. Pellets are the best source, but small amounts of cooked egg will provide some D. Vitamin A deficiency can also cause major problems, but if she eats a lot of leafy greens she's probably OK.

It's probably best to keep her in the cage until she has either laid the next egg or you're sure that she isn't going to lay one. I don't like for my hens to fly around too much when they're expecting, because if she crashes into something the egg might break inside her and this is very dangerous for the hen. By keeping her in the cage she will be safer and you will know whether she laid an egg or not.

I don't know. She's been in the cage since 8pm yesterday alone but I don't see any eggs in the cage.

Yesterday I came home and couldn't find both parents! Kids were there but not the parents. Then I finally found them both sitting in the cabinet with the doors basically closed (doors were a little bit open so I guess they sneaked in)

today at 9am I gave up and let her out because everybody was just sitting hungry waiting for her to come out, and she was very impatient to leave. She didn't go to eat. She checked one cabinet, then she checked her rolled poster that is still there, and finally, she got inside the same old cabinet where I discovered them yesterday. The kids finally flew to the table and were eating. I thought I would leave her alone to let them eat and maybe she will lay her egg. In the cabinet, she found a bowl with old pumpkin seeds (there are at least 2 years old I think!), got into the bowl, making strange noises and throwing seeds out. After some time, I grabbed her (gently) and took back to the cage giving her all sorts of food there. I don't see any eggs in any location I mentioned. Now she is chirping in the cage and everybody sitting around the cage.
Can I tell from the way she looks if she has an egg inside or not? At least, she looks positive and chirping softly a lot, which tells me she is rather fine.

can they hold the egg inside for some time if they don't think conditions are good enough?

She wasn't looking for food when she threw the pumpkin seeds out - she was cleaning out her new nest! Many birds will toss out any litter that's collected inside their chosen nest hole before they use it.

Her hormones will keep running high as long as she has access to any kind of good nesting space. So you need to remove the poster and close the cabinet door and take action with any other nest space she chooses, or else give up and give the nest box back to her.

If she actually does have an egg inside, she can't hold on to it indefinitely and will have to lay it somewhere. Sometimes you can tell that a hen has an egg inside because the area near the vent will be enlarged. I can never really tell with my birds though, even when I know they're about to lay an egg.

She laid her egg, inside the cage, as she was locked up at the time. I wasn't home but I believe she was standing on the high perch when it happened. I lined bottom of the cage with a cloth, to make it softer for the egg, just in case.
Soon after, she mated with her partner again.
I can lock the cabinets and remove the poster, but there is tons of other places in the house we can find. It would make sense to lock her up, but it will be very different from what she used to. Today she didn't touch any food I offered in the cage.
Is she the only one who needs long nights? I can't keep all of them in the dark for so long - they start chirping even in the dark after 7am. And its not fair for the kids to keep them dark and hungry.

I am pretty tired from this. Maybe I should keep the kids and rehome the parents but who would want them? Going to another house would certainly stop her for now.

The parents need long nights but the babies don't. So the kids can stay up late while mom and dad sit in the dark lol.

We're going through similar trials!

I think I know what may have sparked Emma's laying this time. She had taken to sitting on top of my books, on the top shelf, and chewing on them. I covered it with a towel. But, apparently she was then going into the second shelf, which was dark because of the towel hanging down. I know this because when I was cleaning there today I discovered that the books on the second shelf had been chewed up.

I am doing my best to keep her away from any sort of nesting site, but apparently not well enough!