Meilah, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4. This chapter walks through the korbanot one at a time and charts, stage by stage, how the laws of me'ilah (deriving benefit from consecrated property) attach to each one and when they release it. Our mishnah takes up the olah, the offering that is burned entirely on the mizbe'ach, and traces its changing levels of holiness from the moment of consecration until the last of its ashes leaves Yerushalayim.
Who brings an olah
Before we read the mishnah, it is worth knowing how often this korban appears. An olah is brought by a yoledet, a woman after childbirth; by a person recovering from tzara'at; by a nazir at the conclusion of his nezirut; by a convert entering the Jewish people; and by every person who comes up to the Beit Hamikdash for the aliyah laregel on the three festivals. Beyond these obligations, a person may bring an olah purely as a voluntary gift.
The tzibbur has its own obligations in olot. The korban tamid is brought every morning and every afternoon, two tamid offerings each day, and the musaf offering is added on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and the chagim. And whenever the mizbe'ach would otherwise be standing unused, voluntary olot were brought to occupy it, so that it should never sit idle.
The first stage: consecration
"Ha'olah mo'alin bah mishehukdeshah." The olah becomes subject to me'ilah from the moment it is consecrated, that is, from the moment the owner declares of this animal that it is an olah. From that word onward it is property of Hekdesh, and benefiting from it carries the liability of me'ilah.
The second stage: after slaughter
"Nishchatah, hukhsherah lehipasel bitvul yom uvimchusar kippurim uvelinah." Once it has been slaughtered, the animal rises to a higher level of holiness, and with that comes a new vulnerability: it can now be rendered pasul. It becomes disqualified through contact with a tevul yom (one who immersed but whose day has not yet ended) or with a mechusar kippurim (one who still owes the korbanot that complete his purification), and also through linah, if its blood is left overnight and is not sprinkled on the mizbe'ach before nightfall.
The third stage: after the blood is sprinkled
"Nizrak damah, chayavin aleha mishum pigul, notar, vetamei." Once the blood has been thrown onto the mizbe'ach, the korban has reached the stage at which the severe prohibitions of pigul, notar and tamei apply to it, so that one who eats of it in the circumstances where these laws are relevant is liable to karet.
"Ve'ein mo'alin be'orah." At that same moment, the hide leaves the reach of me'ilah. The zerikah of the blood is what renders the flesh fit to be placed on the mizbe'ach, and the Torah awards the hide to the kohanim only once the meat has become fit for the mizbe'ach. From then on the hide is the kohanim's own property, no longer in the category of kodshei Hashem, and there is no me'ilah in it.
The final stage: the meat until the Beit Hadeshen
"Aval mo'alin babasar ad sheyeitzei leBeit Hadeshen." The meat, however, remains subject to me'ilah even as it burns on the mizbe'ach, and even afterward. The Torah requires that the flesh of the olah be entirely consumed on the mizbe'ach, so the mitzvah is not finished until the burning is complete and the ashes have been gathered off the mizbe'ach and taken out to the Beit Hadeshen, the place of the ashes outside Yerushalayim.
Until that removal, me'ilah is still in play. Once the ashes have gone out to the Beit Hadeshen, the mitzvah of the korban has been fully carried out, and where the mitzvah is complete, me'ilah no longer applies.