Doing it this way helped with no possible small gaps. Where the hardware cloth isn't, the wood is. It looks like a bunch of windows, but it has kept my new flock safe. Nothing can get in!
I found a picture when we were in the process of making it. The hardware cloth is framed on each side so that there's no way for anything to pull the hardwarecloth up. I hope this helps. If you need a better picture, let me know!
I'm so sorry you lost your flock. We lost ours a couple years ago to a bobcat. There was a small opening that we didn't know existed. We rebuilt our run with a solid roof over half of it and hardware cloth over the rest. No gap anywhere. The hardware cloth lost is made in sections. Framed, on...