717. Trapping Birds on Yom Tov

98:13 Regarding birds that are in one's house or yard, that are intended to be eaten, and that are already domesticated so that even if they leave, they return home in the evening, one is permitted to trap them for use as food on yom tov - even off the property - and slaughter them. One is not permitted, however, to trap them for any purpose other than for use as food. If the birds are new and not yet domesticated, one may not trap them even for food, even when they are inside the house. However, at night, when they are sitting, one is permitted to take them. In all of these cases one should be sure to select before yom tov the ones that he wants to slaughter on yom tov. This is so that if he finds the one he takes to be too skinny, there will not have been any muktzeh problem in having handled it unnecessarily. Birds that are not intended for use as food, rather they are kept just for laying eggs, are muktzeh.

98:14 Pigeons that live in a dovecote or an attic, even though they are accustomed to return to their nest, may not be trapped even if they were selected before yom tov. (They are different from the birds that are kept in the house because the birds in the house are fed there and return regularly for food, so they are considered as if already trapped – Mishnah Brurah 497:28.)