diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/birch/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/birch/default.nix
index 3afd6d3df06a9..1dd4848427e52 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/birch/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/birch/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchFromGitHub
+, fetchpatch
 , setuptools
 , strct
 , pytestCheckHook
@@ -19,11 +20,24 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     hash = "sha256-KdQZzQJvJ+logpcLQfaqqEEZJ/9VmNTQX/a4v0oBC98=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # https://github.com/shaypal5/birch/pull/4
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "fix-versioneer-on-python312.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/shaypal5/birch/commit/84d597b2251ebb76fb15fb70fc86c83baa19dc0b.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-xXADCSIhq1ARny2twzrhR1J8LkMFWFl6tmGxrM8RvkU=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace pytest.ini \
       --replace  \
         "--cov" \
         "#--cov"
+
+    # configure correct version, which fails due to missing .git
+    substituteInPlace versioneer.py birch/_version.py \
+      --replace '"0+unknown"' '"${version}"'
   '';
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [