diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..93350a60b7db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{ stdenv, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi
+, iowait, psutil, pyzmq, tornado, mock }:
+
+buildPythonPackage rec {
+  pname = "circus";
+  version = "0.11.1";
+
+  src = fetchPypi {
+    inherit pname version;
+    sha256 = "0ip87wlq864k2rhk2r0rqq12ard1iggb61r6dsga4gh7lm538mrp";
+  };
+
+  doCheck = false; # weird error
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ iowait psutil pyzmq tornado mock ];
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index d0f337de7f0b..77c8fc86208d 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -1117,18 +1117,7 @@ in {
 
   cheroot = callPackage ../development/python-modules/cheroot {};
 
-  circus = buildPythonPackage rec {
-    name = "circus-0.11.1";
-
-    src = pkgs.fetchurl {
-      url = "mirror://pypi/c/circus/${name}.tar.gz";
-      sha256 = "3757344aa5073ea29e6e2607b3de8ba1652502c61964316116931884293fe846";
-    };
-
-    doCheck = false; # weird error
-
-    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ iowait psutil pyzmq tornado mock ];
-  };
+  circus = callPackage ../development/python-modules/circus {};
 
   colorclass = buildPythonPackage rec {
     pname = "colorclass";