Runaway CPU and memory on high load

I've been running  backhand 1.2.2 and apache 1.3.27/php 4.3.0 
RH7.1(2.4.2-2)  tenuously
for 2 weeks now. (It was a backup plan for a failed Aeropoint.)
My moderator handles ~600 hits per second at the daily peak
to four backend servers all (except 1) Dual 800 Xeons.

The problem is that after a short time 1 or 2 apache processes start 
growing
and sucking up CPU. If got a cron'ed job to kill processes if they exceed
15Meg in VM but without this the moderator would soon run out of memory.
Config follows.
Also I don't use byBusychildren because one of the backend never show 
servers
in use and gets all new traffic.

I'm renicing the moderator and the moderator has keepalives off whereas 
the rest are on.
Any ideas??

<IfModule mod_backhand.c>
   UnixSocketDir /usr/local/apache/backhand
   MulticastStats 10.0.0.200 10.0.0.255:4445
   AcceptStats 10.0.0.0/24
   BackhandModeratorPIDFile /usr/local/apache/backhand/moderator.pid
BackhandConnectionPools off
   <Location "/backhand">
     SetHandler backhand-handler
   </Location>
</IfModule>

<Directory "/usr/local/apache/htdocs">
      Backhand removeSelf
      Backhand byAge
      Backhand bySession
</Directory>