[JBelk]

A fence charger is your friend. String two wires, one hot and one ground in places he has to travel.

HERE is an outfit that can answer questions and undoubtedly have experience in exactly what you have. A matt or screen or fabric might be the best bet.

North of me 15 miles is a 'factory farm' that looks like the ever present spud cellars and big tractor sheds. It's a metal building 50 x 200 feet with no doors or windows visible and one employee car in the lot. They produce 6,000 chickens a week on two floors. Last year, a weasel got in. It took weeks to find the hole.

 

[JBelk]

Fake eggs used to be ceramic. I found three in one place deep in the woods one time. My grandmother claimed them and blamed snakes for taking them. She told of a time a snake swallowed a fake egg then went through the handle of her grain and grit scoop then swallowed another egg. My grandad found the snake and scoop in the garage a hundred feet away.

 

[JBelk]

In this part of the world, somebody that kills a rat snake is a pariah. Our particular brand of rat snake, the Great Basin Gopher snake, hunts kills and eats rattlers. NO body kills a 'Bullsnake' for that reason.

 

[JBelk]

You're correct. Same in Fla. Rat snakes eat rats, eggs and other (small)snakes and the Kings eat nothing but snakes. (I learned that as a kid. I had five....then one.)

 

[JBelk]

Box turtles are dry-land animals that seldom drink. You did good by getting him out of the fence. Once programmed they strike out in pretty much a straight line. I've found them butted up to a fence and four holes dug by their feet still trying to go. They don't normally back up, no matter the obstacle.
The sand hills of Florida has the Gopher Tortoise which is a big land turtle that dig sloping holes as dens. Those 'gopher holes' become the winter den for Rattlesnakes which makes them 'easy' to catch in the big Rattlesnake Round-ups. I took third place with 107 lbs of rattlesnakes from one gopher hole at Whigham, GA one year.

Box Tortoises usually have yellow in their shells. Gophers are flat medium gray.

 

[JBelk]

Bull snakes try to climb my log siding to get to the swallows nesting under the eves. At a previous place I watched a big bull snake climb into a 30 foot tree, ate the Robin's eggs and then caught the mamma. He turned loose the tree and fell, with the struggling bird, all the way to the ground where he ate the Robin. Some are docile enough to pick up and move, but some are extremely defensive. They 'blow' and flatten their necks and rattle the tail tip just like a Rattlesnake. Here, they're used to snake train dogs and do a good job of it.

 

[JBelk]

As a kid in N. Florida and a love of snakes, I ran to every Blue Jay fuss.....with a gun. Most of the time it was a gray rat snake or Hognose and I'd catch him and take him home.
I hatched 21 blacksnakes in a bowl in my bedroom. The day of hatching I was in school but the dog was curious and turned over the bowl. I got a call on the intercom to come to the office. Mama was there to take me home and clean house. The whole bunch had scattered but bless her heart, she put pot lids and jars and pots and pans over them as she found them. I only lost three but I never told her there were more empty shells than recovered snakes.