Some may have other information but I have always been comfortable eating fruit that was not fermented. Citrus has sections so the bird may have caused some damage to one or two sections but I'm guessing the damage goes little deeper than the rind. I say pick your first lemon, slice off just the skin at the deepest damaged place to better determine how deep the damage is and enjoy the rest! I also have bird problems with my Ponderosa lemons. Boat-tail grackles come in about this time of year and they don't peck holes in the peel but they scrape off the green zest. The lemons still fill out and mature but they are deformed because of the damage to the outter skin. I haven't found any ways to keep the grackles at bay.

To answer the original question it seems as tho the plants are just super stressed, and when they get stressed they drop their leaves and fruit to survive. They are getting much different conditions than they were at HD, where they outside or inside a greenhouse in HD? I am going to guess that they were inside or at least shaded, they had to be hardened off in before just putting them in full sun. This is done by SLOWLY introducing them to the sun for a short period of time gradually working up to full day sunlight. Stop fertilizing and watering until you know for sure they are dried out. Than completely soak and repeat the cycle. Citrus will survive slightly dehydrated better than they will flooded. The meter you are using measures the electric conductivity of the soil so if it is littered with fertilizers you will get false readings. Are you able to post pics of the trees and their pots? I would suggest a re-potting and pruning, but as you said you are new to gardening and this may scare you a bit. Do you have any friends with a green thumb that could help you with this? Don't expect any flowers or fruits till next year as said since the plants are so stressed, but you never know with some TLC and luck you may get some winter blooms. Again pics would really help, and good luck!

I have read most of these post...yet I still do not seem to see an answer for me...I have lemons, maybe a handful that have been growing for almost 10 months! and still are green as grass....Are they ripe? Can I eat them? Or do I need to just say "Hey, it will take a year and a half to get a yellow lemon?"..it is for sure a meyer lemon plant..*sigh* Oh I live in mid to north Georgia..Highs are low 90's and cools are 68ish..

Those fruits are fully mature and ready for consumption. Had you left them on the tree, they would have gotten a bit more yellow; but not better. Putting them in the dark degrades the remaining chlorophyl in the peel and shows more of the yellow that is already there. Commercially we do that (it's called de-greening) with liquid or gas ethylene. The grapefruit industry does the same at the beginning of the harvest season.