RE: Do owls eat baby turkeys?
I don't know for sure about Barred owls...but I do know that an adult Great Horned Owl will snatch a full grown adult turkey right off the roost branch.
Everything eats turkey eggs and turkey poults. Nature has equiped them for defense though.
Ever spook a hen off the nest...notice how she runs out in the open but doesn't run very far...and she makes a lot of noise...she is trying to get you to chase her...which will in effect...get the threat/predator away from the nest. Or in later cases, away from the poults. Poults have a whistle (a precursor to the kee kee) that to predator ears (ours included) is audible, but it is in a tone that we cannot easily pinpoint direction or location wise. Sort of like hearing a gunshot across the river...all you know is about where it came from...who knows how far or exactly where?
Also, poults can fly from the time they are about a week old. They sorta look like quail on the wing...but more like big june bugs or fuzzy softballs. Pretty funny to watch'em fly up!