diff --git a/airflow/models.py b/airflow/models.py
index 653033d7d3c92..757913b2dd36e 100755
--- a/airflow/models.py
+++ b/airflow/models.py
@@ -2420,7 +2420,7 @@ def __init__(
             )
         self._schedule_interval = schedule_interval
         self.retries = retries if retries is not None else \
-            configuration.conf.getint('core', 'default_task_retries', fallback=0)
+            int(configuration.conf.get('core', 'default_task_retries', fallback=0))
         self.queue = queue
         self.pool = pool
         self.sla = sla