You may have heard that for easy to peel eggs, you should not use fresh eggs. If you have a chicken on your property laying eggs, that is a fresh egg and I agree that you should not use eggs the day they pop out of your chicken (sorry for that graphic image I just put in your head). If you buy your eggs at the grocery store, like I do, they should do just fine. It's not necessary, or practical, to plan this whole egg boiling situation a week or two in advance and most of us don't keep a dozen old eggs on hand. If you've got eggs near the expiration date - use them. If not, use what you've got in your fridge. And, by the way, if you do have a chicken on your property, congratulations. I dream of having a chicken on my property one of these days. A girl's gotta dream.