diff --git a/lib/puppet/application/queue.rb b/lib/puppet/application/queue.rb
index ede47d0a6..9039a6e62 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/application/queue.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/application/queue.rb
@@ -1,92 +1,102 @@
 require 'puppet/application'
 require 'puppet/util'
 
 class Puppet::Application::Queue < Puppet::Application
   should_parse_config
 
   attr_accessor :daemon
 
   def preinit
     require 'puppet/daemon'
     @daemon = Puppet::Daemon.new
     @daemon.argv = ARGV.dup
-    Puppet::Util::Log.newdestination(:console)
 
     # Do an initial trap, so that cancels don't get a stack trace.
 
     # This exits with exit code 1
     Signal.trap(:INT) do
       $stderr.puts "Caught SIGINT; shutting down"
       exit(1)
     end
 
     # This is a normal shutdown, so code 0
     Signal.trap(:TERM) do
       $stderr.puts "Caught SIGTERM; shutting down"
       exit(0)
     end
 
     {
       :verbose => false,
       :debug => false
     }.each do |opt,val|
       options[opt] = val
     end
   end
 
   option("--debug","-d")
   option("--verbose","-v")
 
+  option("--logdest DEST", "-l DEST") do |arg|
+    begin
+      Puppet::Util::Log.newdestination(arg)
+      options[:setdest] = true
+    rescue => detail
+      puts detail.backtrace if Puppet[:debug]
+      $stderr.puts detail.to_s
+    end
+  end
+
   def main
     require 'puppet/indirector/catalog/queue' # provides Puppet::Indirector::Queue.subscribe
     Puppet.notice "Starting puppetqd #{Puppet.version}"
     Puppet::Resource::Catalog::Queue.subscribe do |catalog|
       # Once you have a Puppet::Resource::Catalog instance, calling save on it should suffice
       # to put it through to the database via its active_record indirector (which is determined
       # by the terminus_class = :active_record setting above)
       Puppet::Util.benchmark(:notice, "Processing queued catalog for #{catalog.name}") do
         begin
           catalog.save
         rescue => detail
           puts detail.backtrace if Puppet[:trace]
           Puppet.err "Could not save queued catalog for #{catalog.name}: #{detail}"
         end
       end
     end
 
     Thread.list.each { |thread| thread.join }
   end
 
   # Handle the logging settings.
   def setup_logs
     if options[:debug] or options[:verbose]
       Puppet::Util::Log.newdestination(:console)
       if options[:debug]
         Puppet::Util::Log.level = :debug
       else
         Puppet::Util::Log.level = :info
       end
     end
+    Puppet::Util::Log.newdestination(:syslog) unless options[:setdest]
   end
 
   def setup
     unless Puppet.features.stomp?
       raise ArgumentError, "Could not load the 'stomp' library, which must be present for queueing to work.  You must install the required library."
     end
 
     setup_logs
 
     exit(Puppet.settings.print_configs ? 0 : 1) if Puppet.settings.print_configs?
 
     require 'puppet/resource/catalog'
     Puppet::Resource::Catalog.terminus_class = :active_record
 
     daemon.daemonize if Puppet[:daemonize]
 
     # We want to make sure that we don't have a cache
     # class set up, because if storeconfigs is enabled,
     # we'll get a loop of continually caching the catalog
     # for storage again.
     Puppet::Resource::Catalog.cache_class = nil
   end
 end