She's not broody but she's ?

[Nardo]

One of my hens, a 3 year old Delaware, has laid maybe 3 eggs in this last year, of which one was a tiny fairy egg of only yolk. She was never a terrific layer; she gave maybe 3-4 eggs a week. She tried to go broody earlier this year and pulled out her chest feathers.
I broke her from that and, for a couple months now, she eats, forages, etc. She's not molting.
BUT she doesn't lay and whenever any other hen lays, she gets in the box with them.
She's also mean to the younger chicks.
All of the birds get the same wormer and mite/lice check and she's free from all of that.
Is she just a poor laying, mean #$# hen or is there another explanation?

 

[Kwimmer78]

Delawares are normally pretty good egg layers, so it is surprising that she isn't laying. Some birds can be more sensitive to really hot/cold temperatures when it comes to laying. It could be that July is making her too hot to expend any other energy in laying. I would try to put her in some shade, encourage her to drink more and maybe spray her with some water to help cool her down.

 

[Nardo]

Delawares are normally pretty good egg layers, so it is surprising that she isn't laying. Some birds can be more sensitive to really hot/cold temperatures when it comes to laying. It could be that July is making her too hot to expend any other energy in laying. I would try to put her in some shade, encourage her to drink more and maybe spray her with some water to help cool her down.

Yes, of course, good advice to follow, and because I live in Texas, I'm pretty persistent about many, many methods and tricks for keeping them cool. The recent heat wave has just allowed the rest of the world to catch up to us.
At any rate, you may be right, and then again, it could be anything. She's weathered a few Summers that were not any worse than this one and laid well.