Tom Turner: The Bird House Builder 

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV

Tom Turner is 73 years old. He built his first bird house when he was only eight.

“I just love woodwork,” he says. “It’s hard to tell how many bird houses I’ve made over the years.” 

He is retired and lives off his Social Security. Selling bird houses helps him pay his bills. “I’ve got to sell these two to pay my electric bill,” he says with a chuckle. 

Tom ends most statements with a chuckle, a sign of a jolly soul who has learned to roll with the punches. Whatever life brings his way. 

“I used to work them hay fields all day,” he recalls. “I’d put up 5,000 square bails myself on the farm in Summers County.”

Those were the days when Tom was able to work as he pleased. These days, his health limits his activity. 

“I had a stroke, so I can’t do most of the work I used to anymore,” he says. “I’ve lost 50 pounds. But I can still make bird houses.”

He builds two at a time in his Fairlea trailer, often working late at night. He gets the materials from a local business that leaves their scraps outside for anyone who wants them. 

“They’re made of cedar,” he says. “That way you don’t have to worry about bees getting in your bird houses. People love ‘em.”

For a man who’s been making bird houses the last 65 years, you might expect Tom to sell them in a local store or online. 

“I don’t even text,” he says. “My phone is too cheap for that. It puts all the words together with no spaces when you try.” 

Instead, he sells his bird houses out of his truck in the Lewisburg Wal Mart parking lot. 

“I go for that shade tree,” he says with his trademark chuckle. “Standing out on the pavement in this sun is harder on me than making them.”

The bird houses sell for $40. It takes Tom 12 hours to make a set of two. He has sold 72 this summer.

“It’s something I can do to stay busy and not worry about my ailments,” he says. “Selling ‘em is a big help to me, buddy.” 

Tom sets up in the parking lot of Wal Mart a couple of days per week. You can stop by and purchase a bird house or you can call him at 304-207-8453 to place an order.