A MISSING hen party is being sought in Penally.

A quartet of black chickens have gone missing from a garden in the village and have not been seen for a week.

Named Belinda and the Clowns by their owner, Gurnot Braun, the four laying hens normally never stray far from his home at the western end of the village.

Next-door neighbour Ann Cornish, 82, last spotted the chickens on her lawn last Friday, October 30.

"And that was the last time they've been seen," she said. "There's no sign that they have been taken by foxes, so they may have gone walkabout or someone may have picked them up and kept them.

"I do hope they haven't ended up on a dinner plate because they are laying hens and would be quite tough."

Belinda and her companions, who have black feathers and red combs, have each been laying an egg a day and always usually arrive home before dark, ready to be fed.

Anyone who has any information as to their whereabouts can contact Gurnot at his butchers shop in Tenby Market.