Sand? What kind?

I'm wondering what kind of sand to use for chickens. Can anyone list safe ones that you use please. All-purpose Quikcrete or all purpose gardening sand, I hear course is better. I read that All-purpose Quikcrete sand can cause cancer?View attachment 1802977
How and where do you plan to use the sand?
...and....
Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!
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As someone who had decided to use sand in the run, I researched sand EXTENSIVELY, and finally bought some for my chicken coop/run.
Here is what I found:

1) No bagged sand is coarse enough. They all have tons of super-fine particles, which can give your chickens respiratory problems. So anything you find at Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, etc. is going to be super-dusty and not the right sand.

2) You need to contact a local quarry (most states have a quarry somewhere!) and get **washed** sand that is coarse. You need to get the sieve results of the sand. You want to get sand that consists of mostly coarse particles. What are coarse particles? 1 mm and above. Anything under 1 mm needs to be as scarce as possible. No sand will be completely dust-free, but you need to aim for sand with as few particles under 1 mm as possible.

For example, I just bought the following sand:
https://genevarock.com/product/sand-washed-concrete-2/

At the bottom of the picture are the Sieve Results. As you can see, the sand consists mostly of particles that are least 1 mm. Only 50% of the particles they tested with the various sizes of sieve were .600 mm, and almost none of the super-fine stuff (.300 mm and below) got through the sieve that was that size. That means the sand has a low dust content (for sand).

Sure enough, when I got the sand, it was coarse, and not dusty. By comparison, I had bought Quickrete bagged sand at the same time for another project, and those were so dusty, when I cut them open, the dust flew everywhere. Meanwhile, my DH and I were shoveling and flinging the coarse stuff into the run we're making, and there was no dust at all.

I hope this helps! (I really want to do an article about sand. I haven't found this information on the internet at all and the sieve results are so important!).
 
I researched sand EXTENSIVELY,
I did the same when searching for sand for concrete sculptures.
Needed sharp sand of uniform size, even took a magnifying glass along.
There's a lot of different sands out there and most the colloquial names are rubbish.

You were lucky to find what you did, but it looks like you live where there is lots of mining going around.
How much did you have to buy?
 
The cancer warning is due to silica particles in some sands that supposedly can cause cancer, like asbestos.

The best sand to get IMO is river sand. I can't find it, so I have to use crushed quarry sand. As long as crushed sand stays somewhat damp dust is no problem. Generally, just being in contact with the ground sand will wick up enough moisture to stay damp. I once put quarry sand over some plastic sheeting (to keep it dry) and it was dustier than I liked.
 
I did the same when searching for sand for concrete sculptures.
Needed sharp sand of uniform size, even took a magnifying glass along.
There's a lot of different sands out there and most the colloquial names are rubbish.

You were lucky to find what you did, but it looks like you live where there is lots of mining going around.
How much did you have to buy?

I live in a desert, so yes, you're right. There is a lot of mining around here (more mining than wood/logging operations). I ended up purchasing 6 tons of sand to fill an area 8' x 16' at 10-12 inches deep. I even had to pay a little extra for delivery, as this sand came from a quarry further from me than the other choices on that site I linked to. But wow, it's perfect. At least, it seems perfect now. Chicks are coming in July...will be about four weeks after that before I can get them outside into the coop/run. We'll see how much they like it.
 

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