Sheep stuns experts by giving birth to six healthy lambs

A "supermum" sheep has given birth to six healthy lambs. The sextuplets were born to two-year-old Dolly, a pedigree Lleyn ewe on April 3 at Crookham Westfield farm, on the Pallinsburn Estate in Cornhill on Tweed, Northumberland.

Estate owner George Farr's sons Ollie, 11, and Jamie, 10, have named the three-week-olds Valerie, Harriet, Scrappy, Rosie, Chunky, and Slim. The boys are helping Dolly feed her flock.

Farm worker Mark Richardson, 30, said he'd never seen so many lambs from a single ewe. He said: "I just went out one morning and there she was with the six lambs.



"I looked round the shed and none of the others had lambed, she was the only one, so they all came from her.

"It was a big surprise. Lleyns usually have two or three lambs, so to have six is very unusual. I have never seen it before."

Ollie said: "We have to hand feed them because Dolly has not enough teats for all six of them. Some of them take the bottles more easily than others, so we are feeding three out of the six; the three most tame." Jamie said: "They are always hungry."