AN award-winning school farm is looking for a new home for its most vociferous resident - after neighbours raised concerns that Billy the cockerel and his crack of dawn racket was keeping them awake

To be fair it’s not just Billy, some of the resident donkeys at the Mowbray School Farm in Bedale are also in the frame for disturbing the peace, but it’s thought they’re merely being egged on by Billy.

So headteacher Jonathan Tearle is appealing for a local farmer or cockerel-loving landowner to take him off their hands.

“We are really keen to be good neighbours, we don’t want the farm to have an effect on, or disturb local residents. We have several cockerels but Billy is the one who seems to be the loudest and the earliest riser - and we think he tends to set off the donkeys.

“We hope if we can find him a new home that will make the difference. The farm has been a huge success with the students, it has been wonderful, they love being with the animals, we have seen some children’s lives utterly transformed through the farm. ”

Mowbray is a community special school, catering for children up to 16 with a range of learning difficulties.

The farm was started over four years ago on an area which used to be a small holding and has a wide collection of animals including sheep, goats, turkeys, rabbits and pigs as well as 50 chickens and several cockerels.

The cockerels are used for breeding so the children can see the chicks hatching. Billy. who is two years old, was bred on the farm.

Mowbray has won awards at the Great Yorkshire Show with the animals , and recently was made an eco-ambassador for other schools all over the country because of its work with the farm and a nature area.

Billy’s move is being made after the school was contacted by Bedale Town Council who had been sent a letter by a local resident. He said over the past year the noise had grown progressively worse between 3am and 5am.

He pleaded: “ I know the creatures must give the children enjoyment and would most certainly not want this taken away but is there anyway the cockerel could be kept in a coop or donkeys in an internal barn?

“I work long hours and I am getting to the point where I can't get but a few hours sleep.”

Mr Tearle said they understand and are asking anyone who thinks they can help and who may be able to assist during the summer holidays with egg distribution to contact them through the school website mowbray.n-yorks.school.uk.