Have you ever gotten stuck in the coop?

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Quote:
Ha ha ha !!! I think mine would love to do that also exspecially when I have a :honey Do" list going .....

 

[sondra]

These stories are cracking me up. I hope to never experience a lock-in.

 

[NGT ANGL]

My aunts coop and run may have saved my life when I was younger. I was visiting her and she had an English setter in a dog run. On my way to the hen house to get eggs for her, I had to pass the dog. He lunged at the run and growled at me. I just kept on walking and next thing I know, he is coming at me full speed. I guess whoever fed him that morning forgot to latch the door on their way out. Since I had the headstart and it wasn't that far to go, I managed to beat him to the chicken run and was able, in my terror (I was 8 yrs. old) to unlatch the gate and get in - he did take a bite out of my wrist before I got fully inside though. Then he starts to dig around the run wire trying to get under the fence to get me. I locked myself in her hen coop and screamed for help for about 45 minutes until she missed me and came looking for me. Thank goodness the dog was UTD on shots. I was traumatized and so were the chickens - they didn't lay for a couple of weeks afterward - combo of my screaming and the dog I guess....

 

[b'hamPeeps]

Not the coop, but my friend's cat porch. I was cat sitting and my friend (a contractor) has this great wired in cat porch. There is a regular (human-sized) door from the house with a cat door in it leading out to a cat porch. The porch is completely covered in hardware cloth and has ramps up all the walls for the cats to climb around on and peer out at the world. This is also the area for the cat litter boxes (4) and the food and water.

I went out to change/clean the boxes (they had 9 cats) very messy! As I went out, I carefully checked the door knob to be sure the lock mechanism was in the horizontal position (unlocked). At our house, horizontal = unlocked, but at my friend's house, horizontal = locked!!

One of the cats, Angel, thought I had gone bonkers. She just kept watching me, like, "ummm, just turn the handle thingy..." and then she went in and out the cat door as though demonstrating for a rather slow human, "just walk through."

My friend was due to come home in a couple hours, so I just waited, but after an hour or so, one of her employees called the house from the shop (located on the other side of the property). He couldn't understand why I didn't answer the phone, so he came to investigate. I could see him coming through the windows into and out of the house, so I hollered for him to come around the back.

I have never seen anyone laugh so hard, and then he went back to the office and paged his boss, so he could tell her. I still get teased about it.

 

[tunaoftheland]

I've done it too, but in the run not the coop! It was winter and I was out collecting eggs. My hands were full of eggs cause I forgot a basket, so I balanced them in one hand and gave the string to the latch a tug. It didn't come, so I tugged hard, annoyed. Whoops. It came off in my hand. Our chicken coop, in an effort to make it even safer, is completely enclosed by the run, or I would have crawled through the pop door. And the run is all over hardware cloth, so I couldn't rip my way out either. I stood there waiting for someone to notice me for two hours. Yelling didn't help, since all the windows were closed as it was only 30 degrees out. My mom finally looked out and saw me, and of course laughed, though she tried not to! It did look pretty funny, but I was freezing. Since then I've been experimenting with things other than string to tie to the latch

 

[NellaBean]

I have yet to lock myself into the coop but do have a funny story about locking myself out of my house last winter.

I went out on a Sunday morning to feed the horse and throw trash out.....and managed to lock myself out. Now, I have a detached garage that we used to keep padlocked with a combo lock....and had a spare key we kept inside for the house. Well, we ended up adding a dividing wall with a real exterior door, so we could have the open side for hay and mower storage and the other side for important stuff since the new door was kept locked.

Except I had never gotten around to moving the house key....and The extra house key was now on the locked side.

Which meant I needed the garage key to get to it.

Which was on my house key ring.

Which was in the house.

Which was locked.


Sigh.


I tried the house door a few more times. Still locked

Walked out to the garage and tried turning that doorknob. Still locked.


Darn it.



I did have my cell phone with me, so I call my brother in law who says it would take him at least an hour to come over, so to "keep trying" so he wouldnt have to bother.

Now the garage dividing wall is only about 8 feet tall....so I thought that if I could just climb the wall, I could get to the spare key side of the garage.

Keep in mind it is 10 am on a Sunday morning and about 35 degrees out. I am wearing bright pink fleece pajamas pants, knee high rubber boots and a coat.

So I find a big muck bucket, flip it over and try to stand on it to reach over the wall. It is too flimsy and starts to cave. So I am looking around and decide that I could probably stand on the riding mower seat...which would give me an extra 3 feet or so and should make me tall enough to hike myself over the wall. Except the mower is turned and along the opposite wall. I start it up to move it, in the garage, and it is SO cold out that it is chugging and sputtering and refuses to do anything until warmed up. Within about 10 seconds the garage is full of black smoke and I have to abandon that idea and stand outside to try to breath a bit

Finally I decide to just go next door to the old lady's house and sit in there in the WARMTH to wait for my brother in law to arrive. I walk down the street (in my pajamas and knee high rubber boots, don't forget) and realize it is sunday morning and she is at church. And looking around, so are ALL of my other neighbors.

Darn it.

So I walk back over to my house. I have this crazy dog who is extremely destructive and has to be crated if in the house alone. Now, I can normally run out for a minute or two to feed or do things and be okay. But i would never leave him out loose in the house for any length of time. As I am outside trying to find a way to get in, I can hear him crashing around in there and barking and having a grand ol time.


Darn dog.


I end up trying, on a fluke, my truck door. It is unlocked! So I sat in there where is was maybe 36 degrees and found an old package of peanut butter and crackers. It is Sunday morning, 35 degrees out and I am in my pajamas and knee high rubber boots, sitting in my truck in the carport eating old stale peanut butter crackers.


How is this even my life?


I had just started dating (like seriously, 1 date before this) a guy.....and he called me on my cell while I was out there. I told him what was up and he offered to come "help". Now, let's rehash......

Pajamas

Knee high rubber boots

No makeup, haven't brushed my hair or even my TEETH yet.


No thank you, I would rather freeze to death and DIE.


You know how when you get really desperate, you sometime wonder if maybe you just turned the door knob or rattled the door ONE MORE TIME, it might work this time?

Well, in desperation I went back to the garage and tried the doorknob one more time.

AND THE DARN DOOR JUST SWUNG RIGHT OPEN.


Yes, it was locked. But the cold weather had slightly warped the frame and it apparently wasn't latching all the way. So although I earlier tried to open it and saw the knob was locked...I didn't PUSH hard that time. So when I tried again and gave it a turn and rattle it just opened right up.

How ridiculous was that??!


We now have a spare key on our front porch.....for the garage. So we can unlock the garage and get our spare key for the house. That way if anyone finds the key on our porch, they still can't break into the house. And the extra key in the garage is well hidden.



Maybe the rest of you should get one of those "pay as you go" cell phones and just keep it charged and sitting in the chicken coop Just In Case.