It could be said farmer Mayson Weir sees red when his rare breed sheep give birth.

For the offspring of his flock of unusual German red fox sheep are red all over.

It is only at six months old that their wool turns a cream colour with red fleck. But their head and legs remain red.

There is only one flock in the UK and it is on Mayson’s farm at Dowthwaite Head, in an isolated valley near Dockray in the Lake District.

The distinctive red fox sheep are a hill breed and originate from Bavaria.

Mayson bought his first fox sheep in 2014, and is breeding them successfully.

“There is a tale behind how I fell in love with this breed,” said Mayson, 72.

“I was in Germany to look at another rare breed of sheep, when I happened to look over into the next field and saw these red sheep. I went over to them and they came and stood beside me and let me stroke them.

“I bought those five ewes and a ram. The next year I bought another three ewes that were in-lamb and a ram to get another bloodline.

“Then I added another five ewes and two lambs last year.”

The farm now has 20 pure-bred red fox ewes, eight sets of twins, one set of triplets and and nine single lambs.

“I am still waiting for some of the ewes to lamb,” he said.

The Coburger Fuchsscaf, to give the breed its German name, used to be commonplace across the low mountains of Europe in the 19th century, but by the 1930s it had almost disappeared.

In 1942, Otto Strizel, a sheepbreeder and clothier, found two dozen animals in Fichtelgebirge and started to raise a flock. Today flocks are spread all across Germany and are ideal for landscape management.

Mayson added: “I love my sheep but I feel I have to cut back. My knees are bad. But I am at the stage still where I do not want to sell them.”

Grandson Adam, 21, shears the sheep, and the wool is bought by one of Mayson’s neighbour’s Mary Bell, of Crookabeck Farm.

“These sheep are real characters. They learn fast, are quiet-natured. Stroke their heads and they close their eyes and go to sleep,” Adam said.

Mayson, who has judged at sheep shows all over the country and further afield, saw his fox sheep win prizes at last year’s Brough Show.

“But the judge didn’t know what they were,” laughed Mayson.

The Weir family have been sheep breeders for the last 75 years. Mayson’s life on his Lake District farm is shared by wife, Faye, and he also has a Polish shepherdess, Anna Popielarska, who helps out with the sheep.