diff --git a/kombu/transport/zookeeper.py b/kombu/transport/zookeeper.py
index 027afc68..d00c60e3 100644
--- a/kombu/transport/zookeeper.py
+++ b/kombu/transport/zookeeper.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import socket
 from kombu.five import Empty
 from kombu.utils.encoding import bytes_to_str, ensure_bytes
 from kombu.utils.json import dumps, loads
+
 from . import virtual
 
 try:
@@ -66,8 +67,8 @@ try:
         socket.error,
     )
 except ImportError:
-    kazoo = None                                    # noqa
-    KZ_CONNECTION_ERRORS = KZ_CHANNEL_ERRORS = ()   # noqa
+    kazoo = None  # noqa
+    KZ_CONNECTION_ERRORS = KZ_CHANNEL_ERRORS = ()  # noqa
 
 DEFAULT_PORT = 2181
 
@@ -80,8 +81,13 @@ class Channel(virtual.Channel):
     _client = None
     _queues = {}
 
+    def __init__(self, connection, **kwargs):
+        super(Channel, self).__init__(connection, **kwargs)
+        vhost = self.connection.client.virtual_host
+        self._vhost = '/{}'.format(vhost.strip('/'))
+
     def _get_path(self, queue_name):
-        return os.path.join(self.vhost, queue_name)
+        return os.path.join(self._vhost, queue_name)
 
     def _get_queue(self, queue_name):
         queue = self._queues.get(queue_name, None)
@@ -140,7 +146,6 @@ class Channel(virtual.Channel):
 
     def _open(self):
         conninfo = self.connection.client
-        self.vhost = self._normalize_chroot(conninfo.virtual_host)
         hosts = []
         if conninfo.alt:
             for host_port in conninfo.alt:
@@ -165,13 +170,6 @@ class Channel(virtual.Channel):
         conn.start()
         return conn
 
-    @staticmethod
-    def _normalize_chroot(chroot):
-        chroot = chroot.rstrip('/')
-        if not len(chroot) or chroot[0] != '/':
-            chroot = '/' + chroot
-        return chroot
-
     @property
     def client(self):
         if self._client is None:
diff --git a/t/unit/transport/test_zookeeper.py b/t/unit/transport/test_zookeeper.py
index 03ba5134..7505a6d9 100644
--- a/t/unit/transport/test_zookeeper.py
+++ b/t/unit/transport/test_zookeeper.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 
 import pytest
 from case import skip
-
 from kombu import Connection
 from kombu.transport import zookeeper
 
@@ -27,11 +26,11 @@ class test_Channel:
         self.channel._queues['foo'] = AssertQueue()
         self.channel._put(queue='foo', message='bar')
 
-
-@pytest.mark.parametrize('input,expected', (
-    ('/', '/'),
-    ('/root', '/root'),
-    ('/root/', '/root'),
-))
-def test_normalize_chroot(input, expected):
-    assert zookeeper.Channel._normalize_chroot(input) == expected
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('input,expected', (
+        ('', '/'),
+        ('/root', '/root'),
+        ('/root/', '/root'),
+    ))
+    def test_virtual_host_normalization(self, input, expected):
+        with self.create_connection(virtual_host=input) as conn:
+            assert conn.default_channel._vhost == expected