diff --git a/.github/workflows/comment_bot.yml b/.github/workflows/comment_bot.yml
index b78ae80fb97..3d89c532267 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/comment_bot.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/comment_bot.yml
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v2
         with:
           path: arrow
+          # fetch the tags for version number generation
+          fetch-depth: 0
       - name: Set up Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v2
         with:
diff --git a/dev/archery/archery/crossbow/core.py b/dev/archery/archery/crossbow/core.py
index 92d668059da..fa4500d595b 100644
--- a/dev/archery/archery/crossbow/core.py
+++ b/dev/archery/archery/crossbow/core.py
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ def get_version(root, **kwargs):
     if 'dev' not in tag:
         major += 1
 
-    return "{}.{}.{}.dev{}".format(major, minor, patch, version.distance)
+    return "{}.{}.{}.dev{}".format(major, minor, patch, version.distance or 0)
 
 
 class Serializable:
diff --git a/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh b/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh
index d6294f8318d..0456cf2c775 100755
--- a/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh
+++ b/dev/release/verify-release-candidate.sh
@@ -252,6 +252,7 @@ setup_miniconda() {
   echo "Installed miniconda at ${MINICONDA}"
 
   . $MINICONDA/etc/profile.d/conda.sh
+  conda activate base
 
   # Dependencies from python/requirements-build.txt and python/requirements-test.txt
   # with the exception of oldest-supported-numpy since it doesn't have a conda package