A north-east farmer has spoken of his delight after one of his ewes gave birth to a “one-in-a-million” set of quintuplets.
Kevin Reid was prepared for multiple additions to his flock, but he could hardly believe it when the mule ewe “popped out” a rare litter of five healthy lambs.
It took just 30 minutes for all four girls and one boy to be delivered safely.
The adorable lambs are now a week old and thriving at Newton of Plaidy Farm, near Turriff.
Mr Reid, 30, said: “We couldn’t believe it. One, two or three is pretty normal, and they can have four, but five is quite rare.
“We’ve never even had four before. But they are all doing great – they’re all healthy and skipping about.”
The couple had been following the ewe’s progress on cameras installed at the farm and before the third lamb was born they ventured over to the pen.
They had fully expected the labour to be almost over, but Mr Reid said: “Then she lay down again and out came a fourth one and we thought, ‘Oh, my God’, and then she lay down again and here was another one.
“She popped them all out herself, we didn’t have to help her at all.”
One of the lambs was slightly weaker than the rest and was put under a heat lamp immediately after it was born. But it was well enough to rejoin its siblings after a few hours.
The Texel-cross-mule lambs are still getting milk from their mother but, as they are growing fast, some are also being bottle fed to keep up their strength.
Mr Reid said: “We are giving them a wee top up as the mum is struggling a bit having five. But we’ll let them grow a bit before twinning them on to other ewes. Two is plenty for a ewe.”
Wife Emma, who has taken a fortnight off work to help with the lambing, added: “She’s a really good mum. They have a tendency to lie on their lambs, but it’s almost like she does a head count before she lies down.”
By the end of the lambing season, the couple expect to have more than 400 lambs from their 250-flock of mule, Texel and Suffolk ewes.
Commenting from his own lambing shed, NFU Scotland’s communications director Bob Carruth, said: “It is generally accepted that the odds of a ewe giving birth to five lambs is a million to one so this is a real surprise package.
“Ideally, most ewes will have twins each year so this ewe has certainly delivered something rare. The even better news is that mother and lambs are healthy.”