The Judges Committee has awarded this submission

EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN CYCLE

PROJECT SUMMARY

When the pandemic started, we went with my family to the countryside, and as we were very far from the supermarkets, we decided to see everything that we could produce there, we found that the hen house was not well cared for, so we began to investigate laying hens and how to improve the quality of the eggs to be able to consume.

WHY?

I did this project to teach the people who live there, and so we can all consume good quality free-range eggs. I asked myself several questions, how to improve animal welfare? What did laying hens have to eat? Why is it better to raise free-range chickens than chickens in cages? how to improve egg quality? how many eggs did they lay per day? How did we get the bugs out without putting chemicals on them?

HOW?

With my father we improved the hen house, we took care of putting the exact amount of food and water, the hens grazed throughout the day, we respected the cycle of the hen that lay one egg per day, the place where they lay eggs must be clean and with dry grass that is changed every day. We de-wormed them every 15 days with a mixture that my mother made of onion, garlic, lemon and vinegar, this made the quality of the eggs also improve and the hens had fewer bugs and their feathers were more beautiful.

WHAT?

The results were very positive, the hens were laying more and better quality eggs, every day we collected the eggs and consumed, so many eggs were produced that we did not have the capacity to consume everything we had, so it occurred to me to send it to my family I was in Asuncion to try the eggs of free and happy hens of the Paraguayan Chaco, they liked it so much that I created my own brand of free-range eggs and now every time I go to the Chaco I bring eggs to sell, while I am not going to the Chaco, these eggs They are donated to the indigenous colonies in the area because we do not have there where to keep so many eggs and since it is very hot we cannot maintain the quality of the eggs for long, so what is collected for the week is donated, and when I go To the Chaco I bring eggs to Asuncion.

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SO WHAT?

My results are important because I learned that the hens need to be free. Now I can earn a lot of money with free-range eggs. The conclusion that I can draw is that the better the animal welfare, the better the product. I learned that if laying hens are free and graze, they are nourished differently and the eggs are very different from the eggs of hens that are raised in cages or in chicken coops where they do not see sunlight and do not eat grass, no method is better than another, only that in the end the quality of the product, which in this case is the egg, if it has another flavor, texture, the yolk is more yellow, orange and thicker, you can separate the yolk from the white without breaking , I also read that the free-range egg has more nutrients than the common egg, due to the feeding of the hens."

WHAT'S NEXT?

I can extend this project, dedicating myself to research more about free-range eggs, produce more quantity and be able to sell to more people who want to eat healthier. I want to improve my chicken coop even more so that the chickens are better than they are, they only need to sleep because during the day they are in a very large place full of grass. I also want to later test the idea of mobile poultry houses that can be moved from pasture to pasture so that they always have a place to graze."

REFERENCES/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The owner of the brand of eggs "Granja Doña Anita", helped us a lot with information on how to grow these free-range eggs, and so we investigated more and more until we got to where we got, I hope to continue producing and selling these eggs, because they are very good for health and partly we created a business that generates income and I can save and understand more about the sale and production of free-range eggs.

JUDGES FEEDBACK

I really like this project. It combines science, technology, engineering, math, and health. Really great job! I will look forward to seeing how you develop it more next year!

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