A HAMPSHIRE youngster has been left devastated after her chickens were stolen.

Martha-Rose Phillips, 8, broke down in tears as her mum and dad told her the news that the birds, a seventh birthday present, had been taken.

Now Sue Newham and her partner Neil Phillips are offering a £100 reward for their safe return.

The chickens were taken from their new fox-proof coop in the garden of the Phillips’s home in Winchester Road, Shirley, Southampton, while the family were on holiday on the Isle of Wight.

Shirley Junior School pupil Martha-Rose named her chickens Lulu, Speckled, Corn, Chucks, baby Bun, Jemima and Lavender.

She said: “It’s upsetting because they were some of my best.”

Mum Sue, 48, said the birds were like pets to the family after they had been bought for her daughter’s birthday.

She said: “I don’t care how we get them back, I just want them back in one piece, please. It’s all we want. I don’t know why someone has taken them.”