If I had to choose between chicks and poults, I'd choose poults every time. I still love my feather-legged, puffy cheeked easter egger chicks, but my Narragansett poults are my absolute favorites.
One thing about poults that is different than chicks, you have to be careful with brooder temp the first day or so after hatch. While chicks will move in and out of the heat to be comfortable, poults, like Cornish cross chicks, will tend to lay in the warm spot even if they overheat. If they start to raise their chin and pant, move the lamp higher so that the warmest spot is not over 100F. If they are still laying down after 10 minutes or so, raise it a little more. A freshly hatched poult that is overheated will not seek water and will not seek a cooler spot. If they are very, very quiet, they are probably too warm. If they are cold, they will yell. If they are just right, they will make little two or three note trills to talk to each other. After a couple of days they are much more active and move around a lot more. I think this is why people think poults are "stupid", they are not, they are just different. They are much more snuggly than chicks and love to cuddle, they will walk right into your hand and lay down, and look at you with curious, bright eyes.
When they hatch, if you are watching, if you chirp or whistle they will stumble and tumble right to the window and look at you.
When you mix poults of different ages, the older ones will act as nursemaids to the younger ones, allowing them to snuggle on their backs or under their wings. Male or female doesn't matter, they are very much community creatures. They also don't fight the little ones away from the food.
I was concerned about putting my five week old poults in with the three breeding hens and the tom. They are all fine, the hens poke at the youngsters if they invade the nest area but otherwise they all do just fine. They roost together, they eat together, and the youngsters play tag all around the adults.
