My (extended) family used real eggs for ours. The hunt was always in a relative's back yard, so it was probably better it wasn't the plastic ones in case some didn't get found. Dyeing them is really fun too, we got pretty creative with them. I think our highest unlocked tier of egg-dyeing tech was dye one color, then write or draw patterns with crayons, dye a second color, then melt the wax to reveal the first dye.