[syslog-ng]Apache to syslog-ng

Howdy, Would someone please shed some light on the correct way to get logs out of apache and into syslog-ng without causing the apache to crash? I'm currently using custom log and sending that via a pipe to logger. Howerver for some reason apache will just stop responding and stop handling requests. To fix this i just restart syslog-ng and it starts working. I posted earlier with my config and someone recommend that i send it all via udp to a central server cause this might be related to the pipe. I have since done this and i did not fix the problem. What i really need is a way to get the logs out of apache wihtout using logger? Thanks, Jason