color change

[melony20]

This beauty strayed up at my house 2 years ago and was really wild. I bought chicks (supposedly hens) back in June.
He has gotten alot tamer and has been coming closer to me since then and just in the last 2-3 weeks I have noticed his hackles turning darker and they look thinner.
I am still learning about chickens and have no idea why he's changing colors like that? Is it due to winter coming,aging,or what?

 

[PeepersMama]

Holy cow, he is GORGEOUS!!!

His feathers are thinning because it is molting season. In the fall, chickens loose all their feathers and re-grow new ones for winter. They might be looking darker because he doesn't have as many feathers right now, but when he grows them all back he will look normal again. There's a contest on here right now for which chicken is having the worst molt. You can get an idea of how "ugly" they can get when they molt.
Have fun with your new chickens!

 

[melony20]

Thank you . I was kind of leaning toward the season change but wasn't sure

.
Like I said,he was a stray and I never found where he came from and had never given much thought to having chickens.
We had chickens when I was growing up but they were all just the standard white cornish and I thought he was beautiful when I saw him out my back window for the first time.
I went to the feed store and bought him some scratch feed and had to throw it out the window of the house because he would run away every time I tried to walk back there to feed him.He roosted up on the rafter of my storage shed and stayed here. As time went on,he got a little better about not running away but would never let me get too close until I got the little chicks.
Everyone had told me that he would kill them,but he has been great taking care of them! After they got big enough to let them out of the coop during the day,he would be standing at the door every morning waiting for me to open it and he stayed busy keeping them all together all day. And he helped me run them back in in the afternoons so I could close the coop up for the night then he would go to his roost. He alerts VERY LOUD when the neighbors dogs come over or when he feels there is any kind of threat and he brings them all to me when I call for them with their treats.
Now,they just go in there and he goes on to bed
I am hooked! I love my chickens

 

[PeepersMama]

Awwwww, that is so sweet!

You've got yourself one amazing rooster there! Have fun with your new girls!

 

[Weehopper]

I believe he is a game chicken. He's showing all the quailaties of the breed.