Reproducer Attached. To run, extract and correct paths as needed in A/bin/artemis, A/etc/artemis.profile, A/etc/bootstrap.xml, B/bin/artemis, B/etc/artemis.profile, and B/etc/bootstrap.xml. Run script reproducer.sh to execute the workflow below. Basic Workflow Is As Follows: Setup a two broker cluster. No special settings really needed here, generally speaking defaults will do. I used a redistribution-delay of 5k ms, but I doubt the actual value matters as long as its greater than 0. I also have the following properties on the acceptor for openwire: virtualTopicConsumerWildcards=Consumer.*.VirtualTopic.%3E%3B2%3BselectorAware=true Auto-create a few queues using the virtualTopic naming scheme. In this test we have these two on each broker: Consumer.RH_001.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic - this one has a selector/filter of MyProp='10001'. The acceptor properties should map the consumer selector to a queue filter automatically. Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic - this one has no selector/filter Connect one consumer to each broker on Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic (the queue with the selectors applied) Don't connect any consumers yet to Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic. This is to simulate the offline client in our real-world issue. Publish messages to 'VirtualTopic.Test.Topic' with a header like message.setStringProperty("MyProp", "10001"). You will see that these messages all load up on one broker for Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic where there is no consumer, and the messages are evenly distributed and consumed for Consumer.RH_001.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic. Getting queue stats from A Connection brokerURL = tcp://localhost:62661 |NAME |ADDRESS |CONSUMER_COUNT|MESSAGE_COUNT|MESSAGES_ADDED|DELIVERING_COUNT|MESSAGES_ACKED|SCHEDULED_COUNT|ROUTING_TYPE| |$.artemis.internal.sf....|$.artemis.internal.sf....|1 |0 |500 |0 |500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_001.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |1 |0 |500 |0 |500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_002.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |0 |1000 |1000 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |DLQ |DLQ |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |ExpiryQueue |ExpiryQueue |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |activemq.management.47...|activemq.management.47...|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |notif.1fb038b2-ec29-11...|activemq.notifications |1 |0 |27 |0 |27 |0 |MULTICAST | Sleeping 10 seconds... Getting queue stats from B Connection brokerURL = tcp://localhost:62681 |NAME |ADDRESS |CONSUMER_COUNT|MESSAGE_COUNT|MESSAGES_ADDED|DELIVERING_COUNT|MESSAGES_ACKED|SCHEDULED_COUNT|ROUTING_TYPE| |$.artemis.internal.sf....|$.artemis.internal.sf....|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_001.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |1 |0 |500 |0 |500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_002.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |DLQ |DLQ |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |ExpiryQueue |ExpiryQueue |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |activemq.management.02...|activemq.management.02...|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |notif.1fac1937-ec29-11...|activemq.notifications |1 |0 |24 |0 |24 |0 |MULTICAST | Now connect a consumer to the Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic queue on the opposite broker where messages are piled up for it. For example, if all the messages for Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic are on broker A then connect the consumer to broker B so that everything gets redistributed. If you observe the counts on Consumer.RH_001.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic queue, you will see that when messages were redistributed for Consumer.RH_002.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic that they all were also redistributed to Consumer.RH_001.VirtualTopic.Test.Topic as if they were being fanned out again and the added count goes up for both queues. Getting final queue stats from A Connection brokerURL = tcp://localhost:62661 |NAME |ADDRESS |CONSUMER_COUNT|MESSAGE_COUNT|MESSAGES_ADDED|DELIVERING_COUNT|MESSAGES_ACKED|SCHEDULED_COUNT|ROUTING_TYPE| |$.artemis.internal.sf....|$.artemis.internal.sf....|1 |0 |1500 |0 |1500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_001.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |1 |0 |500 |0 |500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_002.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |0 |0 |1000 |0 |1000 |0 |MULTICAST | |DLQ |DLQ |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |ExpiryQueue |ExpiryQueue |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |activemq.management.b8...|activemq.management.b8...|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |notif.1fb038b2-ec29-11...|activemq.notifications |1 |0 |29 |0 |29 |0 |MULTICAST | Sleeping 10 seconds... Getting final queue stats from B Connection brokerURL = tcp://localhost:62681 |NAME |ADDRESS |CONSUMER_COUNT|MESSAGE_COUNT|MESSAGES_ADDED|DELIVERING_COUNT|MESSAGES_ACKED|SCHEDULED_COUNT|ROUTING_TYPE| |$.artemis.internal.sf....|$.artemis.internal.sf....|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_001.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |1 |0 |1000 |0 |500 |0 |MULTICAST | |Consumer.RH_002.Virtua...|VirtualTopic.Test.Topic |1 |0 |1000 |0 |1000 |0 |MULTICAST | |DLQ |DLQ |0 |500 |500 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |DLQ.VirtualTopic.Test....|DLQ |0 |500 |500 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |ExpiryQueue |ExpiryQueue |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |ANYCAST | |activemq.management.7f...|activemq.management.7f...|1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0 |MULTICAST | |notif.1fac1937-ec29-11...|activemq.notifications |1 |0 |31 |0 |31 |0 |MULTICAST | The extras end up in the DLQ as duplicates.