Why is Missouri Suddenly Overwhelmed by a Record Number of Bees?

I'd really like to know how it's possible to count the number of bees there are in Missouri? But, I don't doubt reports I'm seeing about a record number of the little stinger creatures not just in Missouri, but all across America.

I had to double-check to make sure the data wasn't shared on April 1 to be certain that no one was playing a trick on me, but I've seen a number of sources saying that America has a record number of bees and Missouri is seeing the biggest uptick of all.

It was 3 days ago (not April 1) when I saw the Washington Post share a story about a record number of bees in America. They're not alone in their bee reporting. Hacker News and Axios are both reporting more or less the same. Bee populations are exploding. This is all based on a recent "bee census" and I have so many questions.

It's an article by Stacker that really caught my eye about how overrun Missouri is by bees. They say that in just one year Missouri's bee population jumped with a 118.8% increase. They counted (how?) a total of 10,500 colonies in Missouri.

Here are some other curious Missouri bee numbers. The Stacker story says there are 1,600 "lost" bee colonies (where did they go?), but 6,000 colonies were added. This is me attempting to do bee math in my head. My conclusion is Missouri has a ton of bees now and I don't fully understand why.

Have you noticed more bees than normal already in 2024? Many believe that we're being overrun and the rising numbers seem to prove it.