Is this too much ventilation?

[australorpia]

While drop downs to close that space off in winter is tempting, you will still need ventilation. Are you covering these openings with hardware cloth?
We staple plastic over our open ends (seen in profile pic, the white thing is the slide down door) in the winter but still leave the eaves wide open. What you want to limit is drafts & moisture (drafts + moisture = frostbite). Also if you make your roost bars out of 2x4s then the chickens can squat down over their feet covering them with their feathers & keep the cold at bay.

Yes, I used hardware cloth but now I have to remove to make the opening bigger. I left extra as I tucked it in on the inside, so I just need to cut down that long strip.

 

[notachickennut]

A good way to slow the wind and block wind driven snow is to install some thick furnace filter material in the openings.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/ventilation-baffling.75434/

Be very careful about anything you put in, on or around your coop. If there might be wiggling threads, strings or pieces chickens will peck at it. If there is a bug on it, chickens will peck it. If there is anything to get their attention, chickens will peck it.
While ours didn’t suffer any long term harm they pecked HUGE holes in the styrofoam insulation on the inside of my husband’s shop doors, because spiders, bugs or some insect crawled across it. We no longer free-range and they are mostly contained to a .25 acre chicken yard.
Chickens use their beaks the way we use our fingers, unfortunately they swallow what they pick up. Fortunately, they are very hardy omnivorous velociraptors and much of what they pick up doesn’t kill them.
We staple the bags our wood chips come in, over the outside of our open gables at each end of the roof. This cuts down blowing snow and wind but still allows for ventilation.

 

[notachickennut]

Another thing about your openings, make sure to cover them with hardware cloth. We had a coon get in our coop thru one of those openings. - Make sure to secure the hardware cloth very well. I have heard of coons pulling staples out to get thru.

Coons kill for “pleasure/entertainment“ we had one coon slaughter 62 juveniles spring of 2020. It had pulled a piece of loosened hardware cloth off out of the eave and reeked havoc on our flock. Our mature turkey, one mature hen and 1 juvenile (a roo of course), survived the butchery. Only 3 or 4 had any meat eaten off them, the rest had throats slashed and were piled up in a corner of the coop.
Around the same time a friend had her flock killed by a coon and her daughter’s flock were attacked in their coop (two separate areas of the roof had chew holes in them). The daughter’s coop is inside a barn with the egress out into the yard.

 

[aart]

Be very careful about anything you put in, on or around your coop. If there might be wiggling threads, strings or pieces chickens will peck at it. If there is a bug on it, chickens will peck it. If there is anything to get their attention, chickens will peck it.

Good point tho both of my baffles systems, shown in article I linked, are beyond beaks.

 

[springchicken66]

Years ago ( as a newbie ) I covered the inside of the coop wall with foam - to keep them warm in the winter. OOPS. Next morning the hens had picked at and pecked holes everywhere. What a mess to clean up. Fortunately no one had swallowed anything. It`s unbelievable that I was so stupid. Now I am older and wiser. My girls love me.

 

[Swbertrand1]

MORE Ventilation is ALWAYS better than not enough...

If I were in construction as you are, I'd put MORE ventilation in that coop.

 

[charlotte-and-the-bees]

I would also cover with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.

 

[Drjohns2000]

I think you're good. My chicks were just getting their feathers in last fall when they went into their new coop, so I kept it pretty closed off last winter with a heat lamp. Now they are fully grown, I have a 2x2 vent in the peak that I will leave open. I installed a solar fan in that vent over the summer to help keep it cooler on hot days and pull more fresh air through the 3 windows that were also open during the summer. I do have a heat lamp still in there set to 20 degrees that I'll leave in there just in case they need it.

 

[Solanacae]

Nah! Shoes and gloves. Maybe ditch the shorts and put on long pants...

Prolly should take off the sandals if it’s snowed recently.

 

[McChooky]

I've got large vents on the front and back (open all year) I've also got a big vent and window on one side thats 4 ft sq.This vent is left cracked to prevent too much air on them in the winter but stays open all summer