Hi, I am also in Virginia. I live in Grottoes, in the Shenandoah Valley.
This is the beginning of my third year. The first year, I bought 1 package from Rossmans in Georgia. I poured them into my first hive, a Top Bar Hive. I had also placed a mini hive in a fallen cedar tree and 2 weeks later had a small colony in there building away. Another couple of weeks I set those bars, in order into another full sized top bar hive. I fed both hives sugar syrup and in the fall, I fed sugar syrup with a few drops of tea tree oil and then some with peppermint oil. Right before winter I layed in some newspaper and poured some sugar in. Other than the essential oils, NO TREATMENTS. I also took no honey, there wasn't much to take. I was glad I did this when I checked them in the spring.
They survived winter so in early spring I put in a global patty and fed a little syrup again with the oils. They didn't take much and started building fast. I did a split from the original package and put the split into a Langstroth hive and fed them for about a month but they didn't drink much. Later on in the summer, one hive swarmed and I was able to catch them and started one more Lang. I did take about 16 pounds of honey from the top bar hives in the fall but instead of feeding, I left them their own stores for them to use. I think this is the natural way.
A week ago, I had 4 live colonies, all working away, cleaning their hives of the dead.
This year, I plan on expanding more, perhaps another Langstroth and a couple more top bar hives. By the way, The Langs are foundationless and I just ordered some of Kelly's foundationless frames. I used popcicle stick starter strips last year with beeswax on them.
Stick around and learn here and at phils site but remember when you ask questions, there are almost as many answers as there are bees. LOL
Robee