In Lyme disease research, routinely vector tick(I. ricinus) is pressed and its hemolymph could be search for B. burgdorferi under dark field microscopy.
For Borrelia burgodorferi, it takes hours for the bacteria to transit between the gut, where it resides between tick feeding events, and the salivary glands. After feeding initiation, the bacteria move through the hemolymph between the organs. It is not always found in the hemolymph in an unfed tick. In your case, the vector tick is a soft tick with a rather short feeding time. Although I don't know the specific biology of this system, I suspect the bacteria must already by present in the salivary glands in order to be transmitted to the vertebrate host and may not transit the hemocoel.