Learn Spanish (Latin America): El panal debe de tener mucha miel.

This highlights the difference between probability and obligation. Using debe de plus an infinitive (like tener) expresses a strong assumption or probability, meaning "must have" as in "I suppose it has." If you said debe tener, it would lean toward a strict obligation, meaning "it is required to have."

Will I ever hear native speakers drop the de in this kind of sentence?

Yes. In everyday speech across Latin America, many people drop the de and use deber plus an infinitive for both obligation and probability. You might hear El panal debe tener mucha miel, relying entirely on context to show it is a guess rather than a rule. However, in formal writing and testing, keeping debe de for probability is the standard.

Could I use the future tense here to express the same "must have" probability?

Absolutely. You could say El panal tendrá mucha miel. The future tense in Spanish is frequently used to express probability or wonder about the present, which carries almost the exact same meaning as debe de tener in this context.

Why is it mucha miel and not mucho miel?