Farmer Kevin Reid is used to counting sheep but was shocked when one of his ewes gave birth to a “one-in-a-million” set of quintuplets.
He was prepared for multiple additions to his flock when a scan in January showed the four-year-old sheep was carrying triplets.
But he and wife Emma could hardly believe it when the mule ewe had the rare litter of five healthy lambs.
It took just 30 minutes for all four girls and one boy to be delivered safely.
The lambs are now a week old and thriving at Newton of Plaidy Farm, Aberdeenshire.
Kevin, 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 went to the pen.
They had fully expected the labour to be almost over but Kevin 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. They were probably all out in half an hour.”
NFU Scotland’s communications director Bob Carruth, said: “It is generally accepted that the odds of a ewe giving birth to five lambs are a million to one so this is a real surprise package.
“The even better news is that mother and lambs are healthy.”
