randy41, you will likely get the answer "yes" to all three questions! If you are in zone 7 you can get a good crop with cloves in the spring. Reading this forum, it seems the further north folks get, the more likely they are to do a fall planting.
I plant mine from cloves March 1± here in zone 6A and get nice, fat clumps that I harvest around June 1-15. I use the smaller cloves for replanting, larger for cooking - kind of the opposite from garlic (which I plant from the largest cloves in fall, Oct. 1±). I also plant shallots shallowly on hilled rows with the tip of the shallot just peeking out.
I also think that a spring planting is less likely to bolt (mine have never bolted) - correct me if wrong, shallot gurus!
hortster