Nova Scotian farmers are among those dealing with a shortage of spring chicks due to outbreaks of avian influenza in the United States.

About 20 per cent of meat chickens produced in Canada are hatched from eggs imported from the U.S. But because of losses there due to the bird flu, fewer eggs are available to Canadian hatcheries, according to Amy VanderHeide, a poultry farmer and chair of the non-profit group Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia.

"The impact of avian influenza in the United States has…