Distribution of births by Anatolian Merino Sheep according to time of day

This research was conducted to investigate the relevance of lamb sex, birth type and birth rate on birth distribution within the 24-hour daily cycle in Anatolian Merino Sheep. The aim is to find solutions to any problem that could arise in this subject. In this research, birth records obtained from 981 ewes and their 1175 lambs in the private sector in Konya province in the years 2010?2011 were used as a data set. According to the results, the twin birth rate observed was 19.78% and the sex distribution was as follows; 54.54% were females and 45.46% were males. Examining the time of birth revealed the percentage of lambs born between 22:01 and 04:00 was 25.99%, while the percentage was 29.36% between 04:01 and 10:00, 25.57% between 10:01 and 16:00 and 20.08% between 16:01 and 22:00. For sheep giving birth for the first time, the highest birth rate (27.18%) was between 04:01 and 10:00, while for sheep giving birth for the second, third or fourth time the percentages were 28.88%, 31.78% and 29.26%, respectively, and the births occurred at the same time. In the business examined, 53.93% of births took place during daylight hours while 46.07% of births took place at night. The percentage of births between 22:00 and 04:00 was 25.99%.