Hello Country Angler, (nice name by the way), and great picture of the girls at work.
I too am currently feeding my bees, I mix 1kg white sugar with 500mg hot (but not boiling) water and stir it until disolved. The drink (?) this down in a few days and then I give another. I will do this for the next couple of weeks and then stop. Last autumn I continued feeding until they stopped taking up the mixture. I feed in an ice-cream container with straw pressed into the liquid. This seems to provide them with something to climb up and down on, otherwise they tend to drown easily. I have read ideas about how much they need to be fed, but I guess it depends on how much they have stored up themselves. Can you contact the Beekeeper from whom you got them?
Over winter I will not feed them at all, unless I work out what 'hefting' is all about. This is the idea that you can tell when they run out of food by lifting the hive a little and feeling if it is too light - indicating not enough food left. Opening the hive deep in winter is not recommended, too cold for the girls, so only do that in emergency.
I will probably also treat for varroa with ant acid (oxcalic acid) after finishing feeding. This seems to be a compromise between trying to be natural but also controlling the varroa.
I often read a website called Barefood Beekeeper at
http://www.biobees.com/index.php. They are well into keeping bees as naturally and chemically free as possible, with lots of interesing ideas. Maybe worth a read.
I have had my bees, with more and/or less success for 3 years now, and so enjoy it. Hope you do to. Good luck.
Laurieston