Don't get locked in your coop like I did!

[Scoop]

Yup, it happened to me yesterday! I have a hook and an eye that I simply latch together to close up the coop. Well, I just went in to quick gather the eggs and in the blink of an eye I was locked in!

The physics had to be just right for that hook to fall into the eye! So I'm thinkin someone was out there just playin with me. I'm like "Okay, that's really really funny, now let me out." "Hello, it stinks in here ya know." "Hello? Anybody? Somebody!" Then I'm like, "Houston we have a problem!"

I looked around for something to wedge in the frame to unhook it, I tried squeezing out thru the pop door, then I started to yell the names of my kids. After about 10 minutes of screaming a DS pops his head out the back door and asked "Yeah, what do ya want?" "Ummmm.... I'm like locked in the chicken coop!" Man, what a headache I had from all that yelling. My coop is a good distance from the house. Sooooooo... you may not want to use a hook and an eye for closure. I think I need to replace that with a barrell bolt. I mean that was zero fun...

 

[faykokoWV]

been there, done that..... I know exactly how you feel

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yep, been there myself! Had to kick the door open,.....Then repair. NO FUN!!!

 

[Scoop]

Whoa! Now I guess I don't feel so bad. Just glad the DS didn't try to get a pict!

 

[herefordlovinglady]

I am glad you are okay, but I have to laugh...

 

[possumqueen]

It is so GOOD to know I'm not the only doofus!!! Thank you ALL for posting on this one!!!

 

[FaereChicken]

Two words: wire door

 

[Sissy]

Oh no.. now that would been a good pic..
thats why I always carry my wire clippers it happen to me and
I used the clippers to cut thru wire to get the hook up.

 

[patandchickens]

Ha, you have my sympathies. If it makes you feel any better, I locked myself into the 3' high pen of my chicken tractor not once but THREE TIMES

*That* was fun! By the third time I had at least wised up and left an aluminum pokey-thing hanging on a hook inside of the pen to use to poke the latch open again.

So one thing you can do, for next time, is to sand or cut back a leetle bit of the door right by the latch, just enough to admit a thin shim of metal to poke the hook back up off the latch. Hang the shim on a hook inside the coop. Those in cold-winter areas can staple some cardboard or whatever over the area if the draft is a problem, just make it rip-off-able in case of need. Much simpler and cheaper than installing a new latch, and that way you will never again be at the mercy of someone happening to hear you

Pat, who used to lock her keys in the car on a regular basis (this was like 30 years ago) and kept a bent barrette wired to the roof rack as an easy break-in tool, which saved my butt a number of times. Of course i eventually *did* learn to take my keys with me, which is good because car door locks are not as easily defeated as they were back then, but at the time it sure was handy

 

[teach1rusl]

LOL!! I would have tried to wriggle through the pop door to escape...and gotten wedged in there I'm sure...

What a photo op THAT would be! Dogs licking my face, chickens pecking...ouch!