www.threelittlebirdsgamecalls.com
info@threelittlebirdsgamecalls.com
(502) 600-0400
“Three Little Birds Game Calls, The Story”
By, Bo Spencer – Owner/Founder
Three Little Birds Game Calls
Before and during the 2007 turkey season, I had decided that I wanted a great sounding and well made pot style friction calls. As an avid turkey hunter, these are the calls that I am most comfortable with, and feel as I am the most proficient with. As I started my search for a call of this nature, nothing I could find was under $75. Although they were all beautiful and the sound was beyond anything a production call could offer, they were to say the least, well out of my price range.
During the last week of Kentucky’s spring turkey hunting season, I was sitting with my wife, and I said to her, “Melissa, the average hunter, either man or woman, has a child or two, works full time, has more bills than extra money, and just can not afford to pay between $75 and $200 for 1 call.” “Not saying they don’t sound great, but the average hunter can’t pay that for a call.” She agreed, and then asked me what I planned to do about that?
Taking that as my cue to explain my thought to her, I said, “There has to be a way that someone can build, market, and sell a quality made call, made with a nice wood pot and the best materials out there, and still price it under $40.”
In her loving and supportive way, she looked into my eyes and said, “Yes, you are right, and you will find out how to do that. And you will start a business that way.”
With that in mind, she and I set out on a mission to find materials. After a couple of days searching through hunting magazines and the internet, I found just the place.
Through that research I was able to buy enough materials to build my first three “pot style” friction calls. I made an order, and when it arrived, I hand sanded and finished those three pots, glued in sound boards and call surfaces, and put strikers together.
When everything was dried, I tried one out. My first call was a slate call with a zebra wood call pot and a glass sound board. Honestly, to my surprise it sounded as good as a $200 call I had seen at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention two years earlier. One I had never forgotten about.
The next call I put together was a glass call. I used padauk as the wood for the call pot on this one. Again, I was shocked at the quality and beauty of the call when it was finished. Call #3 was the same as the first one, a zebra wood slate call. This one I gave to my dad. The man that introduced me not only to turkey hunting, but all outdoors and all things hunting.
Dad has quite a few connections in the hunting world here in the state of Kentucky and beyond. He is the current Kentucky State National Wild Turkey Federation Chapter President. Between he and I, several folks saw and heard these three calls in the waning days of the 2007 spring turkey season. All were impressed, and several wanted me to build them calls.
That was the start of our business. I sold my first call on May 14, 2007 for $35. I told my wife, I think that is a very fair price, plastic production calls are selling for between $25 and $30 each, and our materials are more costly.
It was at this point, my wife said to me, “How big do you want to make this?”
Confused, I asked her, “What do you mean?”
“How are you going to sell your calls? Just to guys you know, stores, the internet, eBay, a combination of all of that, or what is your plan?”
I told her that I honestly had not thought about that, but in my limited knowledge of this, it seemed that the internet was the most logical way to start.
“We need to have a name for them then don’t we?” she said.
I told her that I thought that we did, and asked if she had any suggestions. Several came to mind, but none where what we were looking for, none just stood out.
Two days later my wife was at work, teaching sixth grade at Anderson Co. Middle School. I was off work and at home. She called me, “Three Little Birds” she said.
“Huh?” Was the only reply I had.
Melissa then went on to explain why this name hit her. From the beginning of our relationship together, Bob Marley has been in the background. I know, a dreadlocked Jamaican Reggae Singer and turkey hunting and camouflage don’t quite all go together. Anyway, our relationship started as friends hanging out with other friends around the pool a few summers before, Bob’s music seemed to always be a part of that, just as margaritas, sun tan lotion, and flip flops.
In addition to the beginning of our relationship, my wife and I had just added our second and third children to our family. Boy/girl twins born in December 2006. Now we had our three little birds, our 10 year old son, and infant twins.
Melissa’s idea of Three Little Birds was to say the least, quite fitting. The chorus line of the Bob Marley song of the same title goes something like this…
…don’t worry about a thing
‘cause every little thing,
gonna’ be alright.
So, in review, we started our call building business, and named it in honor of us, or other loves, and most importantly, our family.
So, www.threelittlebirdsgamecalls.com was created.
Now that we actually have a name for our business, we started having all our wood parts laser engraved with our web address and three crossed turkey tail feathers, for a more professional look.
Our next step was to decide how to run this business. What calls we wanted to make, what we wanted to use, and so forth. We decided on a “main line” of friction calls, but we still wanted to offer customers choices as well.
We decided on eight friction call combinations of call surface material, sound boards, and wood pots, to be our “specialty”. Each of the first six was given a name. Each one named after someone of our family, for various reasons. (See attached Call Descriptions file).
We strongly feel that you will not find a more eye pleasing and natural sounding call anywhere. We still take pride in building all of our calls ourselves at our home in Lawrenceburg, KY. I still personally test every single call we build, and if I do not think it sounds the way I would expect a call that I would spend my money on sounds, I tear it apart and start over. I will not sell a call to anyone that I do not think sounds like a turkey.
We still feel like, and think of each one of our customers not as just customers, but as our friends. We will not send one of our friends into the woods on a hunt with a call that won’t work!
We thank each and everyone that has helped get Three Little Birds Game Calls where we are right now, and for everyone’s dedication, support, and belief that we will continue to grow.
We welcome and hope that each one of you reading this will visit our website, and make our products a regular part of all of your hunts.
Thank you all.
Bo Spencer
Three Little Birds Game Calls
Three Little Birds Game Calls
Call Descriptions
“MISS MARLEY’S JEWEL”
“Ms. Marley’s Jewel” is a call that was named in honor of our “Jewel” our little princess, Miss Marley. Marley is our only daughter and oldest of the twins. She has the sweetest smile and prettiest face we have ever seen! She really is a “Jewel”! This call has a Purple Heart wood pot and a crystal call surface. The crystal surface gives a higher pitch sound and more volume to the call than slate or even glass. We paired up the crystal with a glass sound board for a wonderful sound! This is the call to have to reach out and let that gobbler hear you, or ease back on the striker for excellent soft calls when he is coming in!
“JACK’S FULL GLASS”
Our oldest child Jackson was born with Cerebral Palsy. But to those that don’t know that, you can’t tell. Nothing stops, slows down, or discourages Jack. This call was named in his honor, we don’t know anyone else who has the attitude that he does in the wake of everything he has been through in life. In Jack’s view “The Glass is Always Half Full!” This call has a Black Walnut call pot and is “Full Glass”, with both the call surface and sound board being glass. This combination sounds great! The sound is a bit higher pitched with more volume than slate, but not as much as crystal.
“GRAHAM’S CHALKBOARD”
Graham is our youngest and second of the twins. Graham sometimes doesn’t know that he was not born a little bull calf. This call was named in his honor. “Graham’s Chalkboard” is a “Full Slate” call with a cherry call pot. The term “Full Slate” is used with this call because we built it with a deep-mined PA slate call surface and sound board. The two layers of slate combined with the tonal qualities of the cherry wood give an incredible sounding call. This is THE CALL for soft yelp and purrs.
“SASSY’S SERENADE”
I named this call after my beautiful wife Melissa. “Aunt Sassy” as our niece calls her. This call is as beautiful as Melissa is. It has a Purple Heart wood call pot, deep mined PA slate calling surface, and a glass sound board. This is a sweet call! Combining the tonal qualities of Purple Heart, smoothness of the slate, and the glass sound board makes this call a winner! “Sassy’s Serenade” is similar in sound to “Graham’s Chalkboard” but at the same time, it has a totally different tone and pitch. This is a wonderful “all around” slate call. You can make it loud and clear, or soft and subtle!
“BO’S BOOTY CALL”
My wife developed the name for this call. Her reason, “the whole point of a turkey call is to mimic a hen doing what? Isn’t that what they are making?” How can you argue with good logic like that? This was the call that she named after me. Imagine that! This is however a beautiful call as well. Made with a Canarywood call pot and a slate call surface over a glass sound board, this is one sweet sounding call. Very “turkey” sounding call. This model makes very subtle and sweet sounding yelps and purrs, and amazing cutts and clucks!
“THE BIG O”
This call is made using an Osage orange wood pot with a deep mined Pennsylvania slate call surface and glass sound board. The idea for the name just hit me one day. It is named for my mother-in-law, Olivia, or as her friends call her, “The Big O”. I do know that term can have a somewhat risqué meaning, but for our purposes, it is eye catching, original, and it works with this call. “The Big O” has a wonderful sound, great rasp, and excellent tone. This is a perfect all around turkey call!
“PADAUK FULL GLASS”
Our second version of a “full glass” call is this one. This call is made from a Padauk wood pot and it has a full glass call surface and sound board. When I first started making pot style calls, this combination was one of the first that I made. I was very impressed with the sound quality of this call and it’s uniqueness that when we were approached with marketing our calls I knew that I had to get this one on the market. It is loud, has great sound, and one of the best tonal qualities I have heard from a friction call.
“ZEBRAWOOD SLATE”
This is again, one of the first calls that I made when I started making calls, actually it was my first call. It is the combination that started this company and my entry into the call making/hunting industry world. I have that first call that I made, my zebrawood slate over glass sitting on a shelf at home, but yes, even though it has the date of completion and “#1” in gold on the pot, it does find its way into my hunting vest in the spring! I think that this combination of materials is as natural sounding as they come. It sounds sweet!! Great for making soft purrs, and yelps. Not to mention the grain of the wood looks great as well!!!
To see all of these Great Calls,visit Three Little Birds Game Calls
at www.threelittlebirdsgamecalls.com
