Hi, I'm Japanese who eat rice as a main meal. Brown rice is better than white plain rice as for nutritional value, similar to white bread to wholemeal bread. English sites say it has to be cooked as rice swells in their digestive system, but Japanese sites forbid giving cooked rice(cooked starch including cooked potatoes) to chickens as this causes sour crop. If you start seeing vent gleet, it's maybe one of the reasons the cooked starch clogging in their crops. Fermented brown rice is good as a scratch treat. I think as long as 17 to 18% protein is in their feed to produce eggs, you can give fermented rice.