OOPS Door locking issues! :)

[CANDLE98]

I went in my coop today with my kids (5, 2 1/2) and somehow the hook on the other side of the door slid just right and found it's home to LOCK the door and so there we were locked in my own chicken coop!! My kids had to crawl through the chicken door to walk around and let me out! Crazy hu? ha ha. So wish i could have seen how it locked itself! Next time I will make sure the hook is in the down position!

 

[looptloop]

Oh no! Good thing they could climb out to let you out! The run at our new house has a latch that closes when you walk in, the previous people cut through the wire so I could reach through and unlock it, but I'd probably still be out there if they hadn't done that!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I would always drop a stick or a brick in the door so it doesn't close completly

 

[FireTigeris]

I did that in my dove aviary... but I was 6 mnts pregnant .... it was a self latching door and the string broke... luckly I am a tool user and was able to make a push rod to open the door...

 

[omelet du fromage]

That's funny. Glad the kids could fit through the opening.

 

[patandchickens]

If you drill a vertical slot in the door below where the hook lies when it is in the locked position, and hang a piece of coathanger or whatever on the inside of the coop, then next time it happens you can poke the piece of coathanger through and lift it up to lift the hook out of the catch and free yourself.

Pat, who had a similar thing happen in the 3' high pen of a chicken tractor, several times

 

[rubyrogue]

I did that the other day too lol

i had just finished putting up my new gate i walked through and forgot that it self latches. My run is 6ft high with no other way in or out. I was lucky my dad was home and I called him from my cell. Conversation went like this " Yes dear?" Can you come open the gate, I locked myself in" "

" he came out and stood on the other side of the fence and said "now how long should i keep you there" he finally let me out then said it was a good thing he hadnt gone to town. I went and got the drill and made a hole int he post witha string right after i got out.

 

[CityChook]

That's funny! Strangely enough, that exact same thing seems to happen frequently to folks here on the BYC... I seem to even remember hearing a similar story on Martha Stewart last week. Well, good thing you had your kids with you and they FIT through the pop door. It would be a tight fit for me, and not so tidy.

 

[herefordlovinglady]

we need a GFM to start a poll on who has gotten locked in their coop.. i had my coop for two days and got locked in it. thank goodness i had my cell phone and a glass of wine. after i sat and drank my glass of wine, i called DH to ask him to come rescue me.

 

[herefordlovinglady]

Quote:
oh now that is a visual i needed this morning. to funny 3' high, how tall is pat?