That is quite a different environment 200miles north of us. Pure scrub brush and empty miles between San Antonio and Corpus. We both live in the Rio Grande Delta lands if there was a healthy rattler population here I'm certain I would have found one by now. I also hate Water...
Lol the kids around here also tell tall tales about gators in our agricultural/water delivery and drainage ditches. Adults have told me about rattlesnakes and that is a bunch of yada yada too. The only deadly snakes I have seen here over the last 5 years were coral snakes(night active and calm)...
Fodder for me had been so hit or miss the young birds were inclined to believe everything I took to the run was food and took to it easily. My older gals just looked at me like I was a crackhead. They didn't take to my sprouts until they felt the competition for resources as I now let them all...