Matthews' Unique Experiment

What’s the coolest thing you’ve learned in science class?  Maybe it was something visible in the real world like photosynthesis, cellular respiration or anatomy. For Matthew Matthews ’27, it was genetics. Not only does he observe this concept in his day-to-day life, but also applies them.

     Since fifth grade, Matthews has owned a group of 50 chickens that has only grown over time. Starting last year, however, he was inspired by genetics taught in Mr. Billy McGuire’s 9th grade Honors Biology class to try and create a unique breed of chickens.

     You may ask: “What exactly constitutes a new breed of this species?” The answer to this question is complex, as there are numerous factors involved in the makeup of an animal. For starters, in the case of Matthews’ experiment, he wants them to be larger than your average chicken. They should also lay around 240 eggs every year, be especially disease-resistant and have good foraging skills. But, patience and effort are key to accurately measure these traits. For example, every clutch of eggs a chicken provides must be monitored to observe the number that actually hatch, grow and remain healthy two years later. Other factors, like mortality rates, directly coincide with how susceptible the chickens are to illness and how much food they’re able to forage on their own. The primary characteristic that all of these traits share is consistency, namely that with which eggs are produced throughout the organism’s lifespan.

     Once these traits are accurately identified, a rooster will be chosen as a mate with the desirable ones. This male counterpart will then be placed in isolation for up to two weeks at a time. Afterward, the rooster will begin breeding the female hens, which outnumber the males with a ratio of eight to one. The resulting eggs of acceptable quality are then either placed in incubation or given back to another hen to brood for some time. In this way, the cycle repeats itself with the hope that even more favorable characteristics will be present in the next generation.

     Should this process be repeated enough times for a new breed to form, Matthews’ plans for the “super chickens” are quite simple.  He wishes to spread this new breed to local farms and potentially sell some to a commercial hatchery. He stresses that if successful, it would be his “job to spread the breed” because “letting other people experiment with breeding them [is essential.]” Matthews is not interested in receiving any rewards for this experiment, but is simply in it for the joy of the process and being able to claim development of a unique animal breed. The science prodigy will continue his project parallel to taking AP Biology this year as the only sophomore in the class.

     So, the next time you’re learning something droll in one of your classes that you can’t possibly see as being practical, try thinking a bit deeper about it. Because, if there’s anything we can learn from Matthews, it’s that knowledge can be applicable in ways that you would never expect.