Given that they are dealing with multiple sources its unsure whether or not they are infected.
If you were planning on eating their eggs you can cook them fully (no runny eggs for breakfast and no eating raw cookie dough despite how tempting it may be) and it should kill anything lurking...
The fact is that most hatcheries have to have decent to large sized breeder flocks to meet the demand for chicks which makes it obscenely difficult if not impossible to achieve show quality breeding. They are just aiming for utility quality, if someone wants birds for eggs and/or meat in...
I'm not sure that is correct as the ISA website (http://www.isapoultry.com/en/breeding/research-and-development/) states that its breeding facilities are in Canada, France and the Netherlands. In fact on its contact information page it does not list any locations in the US.
A Welsummer with barring would be a Welbar, I'm not sure where you pulled Welsummers from discussion about Rhodebars.
While the breed is autosexable the barring gene itself is sex-linked which is part of the mechanism that allows for autosexing if I understand correctly.
Going through their website I found this in a statement about salmonella:
"Providing safe, healthy chicks for our customers is our top priority, and we will continue to work with our many suppliers of chicks and hatching eggs to ensure we can do so."
Which indicates they have multiple...
Touring is likely out of the question if the hatchery is at all serious about biosecurity.
1) Its really a quality vs quantity deal. Either sell tons of chicks or take the Greenfire farms route and charge obscene amounts of money for rare/semi-rare breeds.
2) Line quality is obviously...
The amount of light per day has a big impact on their laying. If the days get too short egg production drops off unless you have alternate lighting (nothing fancy, just a light hooked up to a timer perhaps)
When I hear the term "spent hen" I immediately think of a hen from a large scale egg operation that uses those ludicrously small cages. Those hens are well and truly spent due to their environment and the toll it takes on their bodies. A hen raised in a pen or free range will be of much much...