ELVIS the cockerel isn't All Shook Up after he was given a new home.

Discovered abandoned in Llanrhaeadr, a number of people volunteered to give Elvis, a beautiful Gold Partridge Brahma, a new home.

Elvis has been rehomed locally, but Jess James, a breeder and egg producer, of Bro Dyfnog, Llanrhaeadr, has seen an increase in cockerels being dumped locally over the past year.

Jess said: "Obviously, there's a good happy ending here, but there's also not a very nice side to it.

"Over the last 12 months, we have had three separate dumpings of four-or-five cockerels outside our house and by the lane.

"We used to have it every now and then, but not at the frequency we get now."

Jess, who has incubators at his site and who "hatches an awful lot" added: "I think, if I'm lucky, I'm going to get 50 per cent boys out of every hatch.

"A little fluffy chick grows to being a big cockerel at times.

"Eight or nine cockerels are loud from half-four in the morning.

"People need to understand how many they will get and how loud they will be."

There was a happy ending on this occasion, though.

"He was rehomed locally," added Jess. "This time, two or three people offered to take him off my hands. That was fantastic."

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When Elvis was dumped, Jess explained: "So once again someone has dumped a cockerel.

"He is a Gold Partridge Brahma. He was starving and his feet were in a terrible state.

"He isn’t very old and he allowed me to pick him up and carry him back.

"It absolutely makes my blood boil.

"Anyway I’m happy to clean him up a quarantine him for a bit and will make sure he is back to strength but now would really like to find him a home.

"It’s a good time to get a young boy with spring around the corner and the Gold Brahmas are beautiful."

A key issue is that of the cockerel's health, meaning it cannot immediately be placed with a flock.

"What people don't appreciate is you don't know what health they're in," he added.

"You can't just put an animal into a random field.

"What I had to do was quarantine him before I could find him a home with confidence.”