A farming family has welcomed six lambs born to one ewe over the Christmas holidays.

The six lambs were delivered on December 28 to a three-year-old ewe on the Hardy family farm outside Birr, Co Offaly.

Lydia Hardy lives on the farm with her two sons, Mervin and Edward, where they keep cows, calves and sheep.

“We were expecting them in January but they arrived late in December,” she explained.

“But we weren’t expecting six – one or two would have been enough.”

Mervin, who mainly oversees the running of the farm, explained he was delivering the lambs for several hours.

“It’s a big addition to the farm,” he said.

“I wasn’t expecting six and it was a bit of a shock – but they’re all doing well and the ewe is doing good too.

“I’m going to keep all the lambs until they’ve grown up for now.”

Lydia added: “Mervin was delivering the lambs and he kept coming in and saying that the ewe had given birth to two, then another two and then another two.”

As the birth of six lambs to one ewe is very rare – with an approximately one in a million chance – neighbours have been coming to see the newborns.

“Neighbours have been coming to see the lambs but they’re in good form – they’ll turn two weeks on Saturday,” Lydia said.

“They get the bottle three times a day, so they’re well fed.

“It was a good Christmas surprise,” she added.

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