I threw together a grow up pen with the cattle panels, mine was an a-frame instead. I tackle all kinds of building so not a big deal. Words of advice, if putting smaller wire on the panels put it on the inside. Unless secured smaller birds can get themselves caught between the wire and the panels.
Hi, all. I'm Blooie, and I appreciate Leslie sharing our run with you and your comments. As she said, we covered the arch with chicken wire. We used a welded wire fence cut to size and shape on the ends. We have hardware cloth running up 2 feet right over top of the chicken wire and extending outward some distance from the run as an apron. First chance she got our dog tried unsuccessfully to dig her way in. One broken and bleeding toenail later she decided that wasn't such a good idea. The apron is solid, and as soon as we get back home from a family emergency we'll be covering the apron with dirt and huge flat red rocks we've been collecting for years. I mean these rocks are huge - it takes two of us to pick most of them up to move them. That solved the problem of covering the area where the cattle panels meet the ground.
Our wiring is all done on the outside of the run so that predators can't push their way in. The chicken wire is wired tightly to the cattle panels and is absolutely taut, and the hardware cloth is literally sewn onto the chicken wire and panels. I understand the concern about smaller birds getting caught between, but believe me that isn't at all likely to happen. I had trouble pulling the flat, empty tip of my glove out! In a pinch for shade, we ran landscape fabric over the top in two places and it has shaded it perfectly and repelled water during a recent rainstorm. All in all we are very happy with it. This is the completed run.