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.
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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.