Chulin 12:3-4

Chulin 12:3

If the mother bird was hovering with her wings touching the nest, she must be sent away; if her wings don’t touch the nest, one is exempt. If there is only one chick or egg in the nest, one must send the mother away based on the use of the word “nest” in Deuteronomy 22:6, meaning any nest. If there are chicks that can fly in the nest, or eggs that have gone bad, one is exempt from sending the mother away. This is because the Torah specifies, “the mother bird sitting on her young, or on eggs”; just like the chicks are viable, so must the eggs be viable, excluding those that have gone bad. Similarly, just like the eggs need their mother, it only refers to chicks that need their mother, excluding those that are able to fly. If one sent the mother bird away and she returned, so he sent her away a second time and she returned again, even if this happens four or five times, he must send her away since the Torah says, “you shall surely send away the mother.” If a person wants to take the mother and send the chicks away, he must still send away the mother since the Torah says, “you shall surely send the mother away.” If someone took the chicks and later returned them to the nest, after which the mother returned to them, he need not send her away again.

Chulin 12:4

Rabbi Yehuda says that if a person takes the mother bird with the chicks, he receives 40 lashes but he need not send her away; the Sages say that he must send her away but he doesn’t receive lashes. The general principle is that any Torah prohibition that is connected to a corrective action does not incur lashes.