Five new born lambs

Derry Journal

The McKinley farm in Derry had a bit of a surprise when one of their ewes gave birth to quintuplets, which the farmers say is incredibly rare – like, one-in-a-million rare.

Transcript

00:00You're okay. You're okay.

00:02Just make sure they're not spanking you out of nowhere.

00:04How are you doing?

00:06Hello little angel.

00:08Hello little darling.

00:10Hi. Hello.

00:12So sweet. Oh my gosh.

00:16Hello.

00:18Can you just introduce yourselves please?

00:20I'm Keith McKinley, this is my father Andrew.

00:22And can you tell me what we're here today talking about?

00:24I believe you've got five newborn lambs

00:26and I've heard it's a one in a million chance of that happening.

00:28Well this is the first

00:30that's ever happened in this farm.

00:32I was very surprised

00:34when I was out and see five.

00:36I thought a few strays had broke from the other pen through

00:38but she definitely had a little worse.

00:40Like you'd see

00:42once a year you might see a couple

00:44and say there's like one in England or one in Wales

00:46or something but

00:48I've never had that. I've only even had

00:50four, never mind five or six.

00:52And as I said

00:54she's taking care of all five herself

00:56and not even getting bottle fed.

00:58She seems to be an excellent mother.

01:00And how many weeks old are they now?

01:02Just over two weeks now

01:04coming into the third week.

01:06Where's that threat of all lambs

01:08leaving you after a long period?

01:10Rare, rare normally.

01:12Rare, rare. Even threes.

01:14We've had several threes and we usually lost

01:16one of them from time to time.

01:18The number amount of threes you'd have on the farm

01:20and it would actually end up

01:22at the factory would be

01:24usually

01:26lost one along the way.

01:28Out of the five we were expecting maybe two of them

01:30to pass but as you can see

01:32they're all happy, healthy and she's taking

01:34care of them no problem.

01:36I may have tried to

01:38subsidise them with

01:40milk, a bottle of milk

01:42but they refuse to take it.

01:44Just refuse to take it.

01:46Is their mother protective of the lambs?

01:48She's very protective and seems to be a good milker too.

01:50Full fire anyway.

01:52All of you lift them and start walking around with one

01:54she'll happily come after you

01:56looking for a lamb but at the same time

01:58she'll be wary about leaving the other four

02:00so she's constantly watching

02:02and she seems to know which ones have fed

02:04and which ones haven't because certain ones

02:06she'll keep away and let all of them feed.

02:08She seems to know how to balance them between her.

02:12Is there a sense of pride here?

02:14This is obviously very, very rare.

02:16He's proud of what's happening on his farm.

02:18It's the first time we've ever had that.

02:20It's nice that you've had that and that all

02:22five are actually living and surviving

02:24and it's the fact that the EO is taking care of them herself.

02:26So it makes you feel proud.

02:28Do they have names?

02:30I'm really obsessed with theirs, not to give it a kiss.

02:32Hey, I would.

02:34If it was me, I do actually.

02:36Not going to lie.

02:38I do, yeah.

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