One lamb is busy enough. Seven is something else.

Ben Frankland, 23, who farms in Newby near Stokesley, said he was shocked when a ewe delivered septuplets last week.

While twins and triplets are common during lambing season, seven lambs from one ewe is said to be “incredibly rare”.

Frankland said he first found the ewe with three lambs. When he returned to check on her, there were two more.

He told BBC, “I moved her to a slightly bigger pen to stop her from sitting on them, but she was still looking a bit sad, so I thought I’d best have a look. There were two more in there, so seven lambs altogether. It’s just ridiculous to be honest. I don’t know where they all were fitting.”

Five of the lambs are now being bottle-fed in a neighbouring pen, while two remain with their mother, who Frankland described as “knackered” after the birth.

“For a good couple of days afterwards she was just sitting about not looking herself really, but she’s come to now and she’s doing pretty well,” he said.

“Everyone just thinks it’s amazing and is surprised that they’re all actually OK, they’re all well.”

Katie James from the National Sheep Association said the birth was “incredibly rare”.

She said, “Seven lambs is absolutely amazing, particularly as all have been born healthy at full-term.”

In 2021, a ewe in Scotland gave birth to eight live lambs, believed to be a UK record.

According to Guinness World Records, the record for the most lambs born in a single confinement is also eight. It was first recorded in New Zealand in 1991, before being equalled by a ewe in Sweden in 1994.

The birth in Newby comes after five lambs were born to one ewe at a farm on the Swinton Estate, near Masham, last month.

Read more from BBC News.