Charity workers said they are "overwhelmed" after receiving more than £800 in donations to replace 65 chickens stolen last month.

Children discovered the theft of 32 chickens from the Lambourne End Centre in Manor Road, Lambourne, on March 15 - just one week after 33 others had been taken.

The chickens, which were used to raise funds, cost the charity £650 to purchase and were bringing in an average of £100 a week through eggs sold in the Lambourne End farm shop.

Young people were encouraged to develop life skills by being left in charge of collecting, cleaning, counting and labelling the eggs for the shop.

Following the donations, fundraising and marketing manager, Claire Gilmore, said the charity will be purchasing new chickens when students return next week and are looking to install security measures.

She said: "We are overwhelmed with the response from the local community.

"Children sent letters to schools and local groups and before we knew it we had more than £800 donated.

"We received £150 more than we needed to buy the 65 chickens back and we are hoping to spend that on security measures.

"We have been discussing installing electric fencing to keep thieves out and also smaller things like bells on the cage doors and baby monitors inside.

"We didn't expect such an amount; it has built our faith in the community and shown that people really do come together in a time of need.

"We are a small charity so to lose the chickens was such a financial blow.

"It has been an amazing response and we are really grateful."