All it takes is a simple route such as this: <route id= "testRoute" > <from uri= "timer:testTimer?period=2s" /> <pollEnrich uri= "activemq:test.queue" /> </route> And have the pollEnrich URI point to a non-existent ActiveMQ broker. You will note exceptions and for each set of exceptions there will be a dangling Exchange. The dangling Exchanges become evident when stopping the context. Also, adding an exception handler doesn't help, as the exception is never handled. Customer states the following, "Debugging the PollEnricher it appears that an exception on the receive call is not caught".