Hrrm. Learning by accident, I think. I recall news lines about the failure of ventilation causing mass deaths in the 10s of 1000s. Because they die in the vapors of their own shit, that fast, if packed so dense.
i was told not to use cedar bedding for chicks as "the smell is too strong, it suffocates them." I'll extrapolate that if cedar scent kills chicks, it isn't too far a stretch that their waste can also suffocate them, as that's actually putrid smelling, whereas cedar just smells nice.