diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 0f43e4cf54faa..9eccf87960dd0 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ matrix:
           - python-gtk2
     - dist: trusty
       env:
-        - JOB="3.5" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow --skip-network" COVERAGE=true
+        - JOB="3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow --skip-network" CONDA_BUILD_TEST=true COVERAGE=true
     - dist: trusty
       env:
         - JOB="3.6" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow --skip-network" PANDAS_TESTING_MODE="deprecate" CONDA_FORGE=true
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ matrix:
     # In allow_failures
     - dist: trusty
       env:
-        - JOB="3.6_BUILD_TEST" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow" BUILD_TEST=true
+        - JOB="3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow" PIP_BUILD_TEST=true
       addons:
         apt:
           packages:
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ matrix:
           - JOB="2.7_SLOW" SLOW=true
       - dist: trusty
         env:
-          - JOB="3.6_BUILD_TEST" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow" BUILD_TEST=true
+          - JOB="3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST" TEST_ARGS="--skip-slow" PIP_BUILD_TEST=true
         addons:
           apt:
             packages:
diff --git a/ci/install_travis.sh b/ci/install_travis.sh
index dac3625cba4ba..90b9bf3f3186e 100755
--- a/ci/install_travis.sh
+++ b/ci/install_travis.sh
@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ conda config --set ssl_verify false || exit 1
 conda config --set quiet true --set always_yes true --set changeps1 false || exit 1
 conda update -q conda
 
+if [ "$CONDA_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+    echo
+    echo "[installing conda-build]"
+    conda install conda-build
+fi
+
+
 echo
 echo "[add channels]"
 conda config --remove channels defaults || exit 1
@@ -116,7 +123,7 @@ if [ "$COVERAGE" ]; then
 fi
 
 echo
-if [ -z "$BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+if [ -z "$PIP_BUILD_TEST" ] and [ -z "$CONDA_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
 
     # build but don't install
     echo "[build em]"
@@ -155,23 +162,34 @@ echo "[removing installed pandas]"
 conda remove pandas -y --force
 pip uninstall -y pandas
 
-if [ "$BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+echo
+echo "[no installed pandas]"
+conda list pandas
+pip list --format columns |grep pandas
 
-    # remove any installation
-    pip uninstall -y pandas
-    conda list pandas
-    pip list --format columns |grep pandas
+# build and install
+echo
+
+if [ "$PIP_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
 
     # build & install testing
-    echo ["building release"]
+    echo "[building release]"
     bash scripts/build_dist_for_release.sh
     conda uninstall -y cython
     time pip install dist/*tar.gz || exit 1
 
+elif [ "$CONDA_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+
+    # build & install testing
+    echo "[building conda recipe]"
+    conda build ./conda.recipe --numpy 1.13 --python 3.5 -q --no-test
+
+    echo "[installing]"
+    conda install $(conda build ./conda.recipe --numpy 1.13 --python 3.5 --output) --force
+
 else
 
     # install our pandas
-    echo
     echo "[running setup.py develop]"
     python setup.py develop  || exit 1
 
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5.build b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.build
similarity index 77%
rename from ci/requirements-3.5.build
rename to ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.build
index 76227e106e1fd..6648e3778777c 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5.build
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.build
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@ python=3.5*
 python-dateutil
 pytz
 nomkl
-numpy=1.11.3
+numpy=1.13*
 cython
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5.pip b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.pip
similarity index 100%
rename from ci/requirements-3.5.pip
rename to ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.pip
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5.run b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.run
similarity index 92%
rename from ci/requirements-3.5.run
rename to ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.run
index 52828b5220997..19d9a91e86585 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5.run
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.run
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 pytz
-numpy=1.11.3
+numpy=1.13*
 openpyxl
 xlsxwriter
 xlrd
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5.sh b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.sh
similarity index 86%
rename from ci/requirements-3.5.sh
rename to ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.sh
index d694ad3679ac1..09d6775cfc894 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5.sh
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_CONDA_BUILD_TEST.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 source activate pandas
 
-echo "install 35"
+echo "install 35 CONDA_BUILD_TEST"
 
 # pip install python-dateutil to get latest
 conda remove -n pandas python-dateutil --force
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.build b/ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.build
similarity index 100%
rename from ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.build
rename to ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.build
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.pip b/ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.pip
similarity index 100%
rename from ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.pip
rename to ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.pip
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.sh b/ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.sh
similarity index 75%
rename from ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.sh
rename to ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.sh
index 2a3adeff836ee..3a8cf673b32f2 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.6_BUILD_TEST.sh
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.6_PIP_BUILD_TEST.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@
 
 source activate pandas
 
-echo "install 36 BUILD_TEST"
+echo "install 36 PIP_BUILD_TEST"
 
 conda install -n pandas -c conda-forge pyarrow dask pyqt qtpy
diff --git a/ci/script_multi.sh b/ci/script_multi.sh
index 58742552628c8..c1fa756ece965 100755
--- a/ci/script_multi.sh
+++ b/ci/script_multi.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ fi
 export PYTHONHASHSEED=$(python -c 'import random; print(random.randint(1, 4294967295))')
 echo PYTHONHASHSEED=$PYTHONHASHSEED
 
-if [ "$BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+if [ "$PIP_BUILD_TEST" ] || [ "$CONDA_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
     echo "[build-test]"
 
     echo "[env]"
diff --git a/ci/script_single.sh b/ci/script_single.sh
index 963ce00b4a094..005c648ee025f 100755
--- a/ci/script_single.sh
+++ b/ci/script_single.sh
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ if [ "$SLOW" ]; then
     TEST_ARGS="--only-slow --skip-network"
 fi
 
-if [ "$BUILD_TEST" ]; then
+if [ "$PIP_BUILD_TEST" ] || [ "$CONDA_BUILD_TEST" ]; then
     echo "We are not running pytest as this is a build test."
 
 elif [ "$DOC" ]; then
diff --git a/conda.recipe/meta.yaml b/conda.recipe/meta.yaml
index 0b54980d2bc87..3510496f0b519 100644
--- a/conda.recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda.recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 package:
     name: pandas
-    version: {{ GIT_DESCRIBE_TAG|replace("v","") }}
+    version: {{ environ.get('GIT_DESCRIBE_TAG','').replace('v', '', 1) }}
 
 build:
-    number: {{ GIT_DESCRIBE_NUMBER|int }}
+    number: {{ environ.get('GIT_DESCRIBE_NUMBER', 0) }}
     {% if GIT_DESCRIBE_NUMBER|int == 0 %}string: np{{ CONDA_NPY }}py{{ CONDA_PY }}_0
     {% else %}string: np{{ CONDA_NPY }}py{{ CONDA_PY }}_{{ GIT_BUILD_STR }}{% endif %}
 
@@ -14,12 +14,14 @@ requirements:
   build:
     - python
     - cython
-    - numpy x.x
+    - {{ pin_compatible('numpy') }}
     - setuptools >=3.3
+    - python-dateutil >=2.5.0
+    - pytz
 
   run:
     - python
-    - numpy x.x
+    - {{ pin_compatible('numpy') }}
     - python-dateutil >=2.5.0
     - pytz
 
diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.22.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.22.0.txt
index ae6d0816abc41..55c50bf8c6442 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.22.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.22.0.txt
@@ -162,8 +162,12 @@ If installed, we now require:
    +-----------------+-----------------+----------+
 
 
+Build Changes
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
 - Building pandas for development now requires ``cython >= 0.24`` (:issue:`18613`)
 - Building from source now explicity requires ``setuptools`` in ``setup.py`` (:issue:`18113`)
+- Updated conda recipe to be in compliance with conda-build 3.0+ (:issue:`18002`)
 
 .. _whatsnew_0220.api: